Sensitivity Training
by kem81
Summary: Kenpachi has finally gone too far and now the old man is making him go through some odd version of sensitivity training. Rated M for some adult content and possible lemons in the future.
1. Chapter 1

**This is my second attempt at fanfic. This takes place just after the Winter War. Ichigo still has his soul reaper powers, but they are starting to fade from over use. Also - if you see anything in parentheses, it's being said in English. everything else is being said in Japanese.**

**I do not own Bleach, I just like to borrow the characters and take them out for a spin every now and then.**

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"Sensitivity training?! Are you fucking kidding me?" Roared the tall and imposing captain of the 11th division.

The other captains at the captain's meeting tried their best to suppress chuckles and smiles as the head captain ordered Kenpachi Zaraki to the human world to realize what it is like to be weak. He had recently been on a mission where he had allowed souls to die while he had drawn out a battle in order to get the most out of it. He would not be stripped of all of his spiritual pressure, but he would be marked with several spiritual pressure seals and under strict orders to not leave his gigai under threat of immediate expulsion from the court guards and possible execution.

"You were not there to indulge your blood lust, Zaraki. You were there to protect those souls and you failed! I am only allowing you this opportunity to prove yourself because I do recognize that you can be an asset. We will be monitoring you and the Kurisoki boy will be sending in regular reports. You are not to tell him why you are there or try to influence his reports at all. Am I understood?" Yamamoto demanded.

Knowing that the only answer that wouldn't get him thrown in a cell and prepped for execution was an answer in the affirmative, he gave a very reluctant and anger edged, "Yes, Sir."

The meeting was dismissed and Zaraki immediately had the seals placed upon his chest and his eye patch was removed. He already missed the spiritual pressure and his right eye felt odd without the eye patch on. He resisted the urge to hold the eye closed. They had left him just enough spiritual pressure to be able to see hollows and soul reapers in the human world. He hated that he wouldn't be able to do anything and had, in fact, been forbidden from fighting hollows while away from the soul society. He was to sit by and watch Ichigo do all the work. This was going to be the worst experience of his life without even Yachiru to keep him company.

He had been given something called a credit card for clothing and food needs. They had apparently already bought the house next to Ichigo and it was fully furnished. He was escorted to the gate and his zampakuto was taken from him. He went through and arrived in front of a sweets shop. Kiske Urahara was standing in front of it waiting for the captain to show up.

"Ah, Captain Zaraki. It's good to see you. If you'll follow me, I'll get your gigai ready."

Zaraki growled and followed the strange man into the store. He was handed a gigai that was fully dressed. He put it on and was satisfied that Kiske hadn't dressed him like a dork. He was wearing dark jeans, a dark green button down short sleeved shirt and a pair of black leather boots. He saw that the gigai's hair was down instead of in his spikes and decided not to fuss about it. He had been thinking he was due for a change. Maybe he'd grow his hair out. He moved and noticed he rattled. He looked around for the cause of the noise and noticed a chain going from a belt loop to a wallet. He pulled out the wallet and took a look inside. He had an ID card in it. That was all. He took the credit card he had been given and put that in one of the slots and put the wallet back into his pocket.

He left the room and Kiske was waiting for him. "This way, captain." He followed and was led to Ichigo who was chatting with Tesai. When Ichigo spotted Kenpachi, he paled slightly and backed a step or two away.

"Um, I was told to take you to your house, Kenpachi." He said nervously.

As an answer, he growled. Ichigo took that as his cue to start leading. He started back towards his house and Zaraki followed. As they walked, Ichigo tried to talk to the large captain but was met with silence and growls.

They arrived at a large house and Ichigo stopped. "This is where you'll be staying. Here are the keys." He handed over the house keys to Kenpachi. "If you need anything, I'm next door." He pointed to a window, "If you don't want to deal with any of my family, that window is my bedroom window."

Kenpachi grunted and walked towards the house that he would be staying at. After looking it over, he finally sat down on a couch, put his head in his hands and gave in to the depression he was beginning to feel. Who knew this was what it was like to feel so weak. Sure he still had his physical strength, but compared to what he was used to, this was weak.

He laid down and fell asleep hoping that the time he was here would pass by quickly. When he awoke, it was the middle of the night. He got up and decided to walk around the neighborhood. He eventually got lost and ran into Ichigo who was out on a hollow alert. He had just finished and was heading back home. Ichigo fell into step beside Zaraki.

"Really, Kenpachi, Why are they making me send in reports about you?" He was met with silence and a glare.

"Ok, you don't want to tell me. Are you ok? You don't seem yourself."

He growled a little and then answered shortly, "I'm fine."

"Is Yachiru ok?" Ichigo asked gently, knowing that she seemed to be the only person the man beside him cared about.

A little stunned at the question, he replied, "Why would you ask that? She's fine."

"I just couldn't understand why you seem so depressed is all. It was the only thing I could think of."

"Stop asking me questions about it. I don't want to talk about it." He growled. _Damn kid is being so nosy._ He thought to himself.

"Ok. I'm free tomorrow if you need to go clothes or grocery shopping."

Kenpachi just nodded. Soon he saw the house he was staying in and they each went their separate ways.

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The next afternoon he decided that he should probably buy some clothing and as the cupboards were only stocked with a few food staples, he should take Ichigo up on his offer. He walked over to the house and saw that the kid's window was open. He went to leap up to the ledge to pull himself up, but was stunned when he couldn't jump as high as he used to. Maybe a little higher than a normal human could, but nowhere near what he was used to.

Annoyed, he called up, "Hey, Ichigo."

The red head popped his head out the window. "Oh, hey Kenpachi. Did you want to go shopping?"

A little disgusted at the prospect of shopping, he replied with a disgruntled, "Yeah."

"I'll be right down." His head disappeared and the window was closed. A few minutes later he was out the door. "This way." He said and led the captain to the shopping district.

At the clothing store that would carry clothing in the big man's size, Ichigo helped by showing what size would fit him and some odds and ends that Kenpachi might not think of such as underwear. They dropped the clothing off at the house and came back for the groceries as Kenpachi had needed a bit of everything.

They were walking down the street when Ichigo recognized a coworker flipping through a large book, studying what was written in it and then looking up at signs. Frustration was evident on her face as she angrily flipped through the book. As they walked towards her, a man walked up behind her and grabbed her breasts from behind and was starting to jiggle them. She quickly dropped the book, grabbed his arm and flipped him over her shoulder, causing him to land on his back, looking up at her. She quickly crouched down and punched him in the face.

"(What the fuck is your problem!)" She screamed at him.

Ichigo had started moving quickly towards her when the man had grabbed her and had to move aside when she flipped him in order to avoid being inadvertently kicked by the man. He saw she was pulling back for another punch and quickly pulled her away, "Sara! Don't. He's had enough and if you keep punching him, the police will show up." To the man on the ground, "What the hell is wrong with you? You don't just go around grabbing women like that. Apologize!" He had placed his foot on the man's chest and was pushing down hard on him while keeping Sara behind him.

Zaraki watched this all impassively. He had to admit, the girl did show some quick reflexes. What had she said? It sounded like another language. She was kinda pale, but then he noticed that her eyes were more round. _Hmph, must not be Japanese._ He thought to himself. He gave her a once over and saw that she was taller than the girls he was seeing walking around here. She would come up to his collar bone. She had an athletic build and had decent sized breasts. Nothing too small, but not so large as to make her look unbalanced like Matsumoto. Her hair was past her shoulders and was a rich brown color that showed natural highlights and low lights. Her eyes were dark green and her lips were full. He briefly wondered how they would feel on his cock and then pushed the thought away. She was only a human and he had no interest in getting to know any human long enough to get them into his bed.

She was standing roughly between Zaraki and Ichigo with Zaraki slightly off to her left and hadn't even noticed the large man. Another Japanese man was sneeking up behind her and Zaraki gave a low growl to get the man's attention and glared at him while slowly shaking his head. The man realized he had something urgent to do far from there. What was up with these guys? Didn't they have any respect at all?

The man under Ichigo's foot was babbling apologies and he let the man up with a look of disgust on his face. The man quickly left and Ichigo turned back to Sara.

"Does that happen often, Sara?"

She twisted her mouth and crossed her arms which inadvertently framed her breasts nicely. "Usually it's just butt grabs, though some guy did try to kiss me once. It's so weird here. It wasn't until after I had gotten here and started encountering this that I heard that white girls like me get goosed a lot. I tried calling the police about it when I first got here, but they don't seem to care because I'm a foreigner." Her Japanese was very proper and her accent was odd.

"Hey, what did you say to that guy?" Ichigo asked.

She blushed a little and said, "I said 'what's your problem?' but I also used a curse word that doesn't translate well."

"That was English?"

"Yeah. I have to think too much to use Japanese."

"You're doing fine. What were you doing with the book?" He bent down, picked it up and handed it to her.

"Rosetta Stone is great for learning to speak a language, but not so great on teaching you to read or write in the language and I can't find any of these symbols in my book."

Kenpachi looked at the cover of the book. It was on the wrong way and there were words he couldn't read and words he could. It looked like an English to Japanese and Japanese to English translation book.

"What kind of store are you trying to find?" Ichigo asked her.

"I need to buy some pots and pans along with some groceries."

"But you've been here for what? Two weeks now? And you're just now buying pots and pans?"

She smiled by only lifting one corner of her mouth, "Yeah, well, I sank most of my money in just getting here, getting an apartment and furnishing it. I really wasn't expecting everything to be so expensive so I had to wait for my first paycheck. I'm glad we get paid weekly."

"Well, we're headed to the grocery store too, so just come with us."

"We?"

"Oh! Where are my manners? Kenpachi, this is Sara Peterson. I work with her. She's from America and recently moved here. Sara, this is Kenpachi Zaraki." Thinking quickly, he said, "He's a cousin of mine that's only recently moved out this way." He had a large grin on his face that if you knew him, meant he was lying, but because Sara hadn't known Ichigo that long, just thought he was being happy.

"Oh. It's nice to meet you (Mr.) Zaraki."

"What was that word?"

"In English when you address someone by their last name, if they are male, you use (Mr.). It's polite and I remember hearing that Japanese people prefer that you call them by their last name unless they give permission to use their first name, but I can never remember the Japanese versions. San? Chan? They kinda confuse me."

"If Kenpachi were a kid you could use chan, but male or female, you can use san. And it's used after the name."

She crinkled her nose and forehead, "That's just odd."

"Just call me Kenpachi." The large man cut in.

She smiled and said, "As you wish." With a small nod of her head.

They walked to the store together and ended up walking the isles together, with Ichigo reading some of the labels for his coworker and teasing her about it. As they shopped, Ichigo asked a barrage of questions.

"So what made you move here?" He asked.

"My fiancé and I always thought about it."

"Fiancé?"

"Yeah. He was killed by a drunk driver about two years ago now. I just really needed a change of scenery and pace. We had been learning Japanese together and when he died I kept up. Gave me something to do to keep my mind off of everything going on. My family knew we were thinking about coming to live here and encouraged me to give it a try. I had to sell my house, my car, and pretty much anything I wasn't planning on shipping over here. I hadn't counted on not being able to read anything and not being able to look anything up. I swear, this book is useless."

Ichigo took the book from her and flipped through it. "Here's your problem. This book is for a completely different dialect from what we use here." He gave the book back to her.

She closed her eyes, groaned, and tossed the book into the nearest trash can, making Kenpachi chuckle.

They found the pots and pans and Sara grabbed a box that had a little bit of everything. Ichigo took it from her and she looked at him startled, "Please don't." She said reaching for the box.  
"Don't what?" He replied, confused as to why she wouldn't want him to carry the box.

Her eyes looked pleading as she said, "Ichigo, you're not my pack mule. If I can't carry what I intend to purchase, then I wouldn't buy it in the first place."

"Hey, don't worry about it." He replied. And when she reached out for the box again, pulled it away. "I said, don't worry about it. You're going to want a free hand while you grocery shop."

She looked down and away and closed her eyes and softly said, "As you wish."

Kenpachi looked at Ichigo and the kid shrugged, not understanding what the big deal was. It was just a box.

Sara and Kenpachi both only shopped for a few days' worth of food. When they finished paying, Ichigo grabbed the box of pots and pans again and smirked at Sara.

"Which way to your house?" Ichigo asked her.

She frowned at him and adjusted the two large paper bags so they could both be carried in one arm. She reached out for the box and said, "Ok, you've had your fun. Now give me my pots and pans. I wasn't kidding."

He smiled playfully, "No. Besides, you aren't going to be able to hold those bags like that long. Why are you making a bid deal out of this?"

"I just don't like to owe any one for anything if I can help it."

He shrugged, "You won't owe me. Just point the way to your apartment."

She sighed heavily and used her free arm to rub her hand across her face in exasperation. She shifted the bags so she held one in each arm and said, "Fine. This way." And lead them to her apartment. Kenpachi followed, more because he didn't know the way home then for any interest in the matter. He could respect her attitude though. Being new to a city and not wanting to inadvertently owe someone more then she really wanted to be held accountable for later. The kid wasn't one to hold things over someone's head, but if she was as new to Japan as she was saying, then she wouldn't know that about him.

She led them to an apartment that was on the first floor. She set down one of the bags and dug in her pocket for a key. She opened the door and said, "Would you like to come in for something to drink? It's a bit hotter here then I'm used to."

Ichigo smiled and replied, "Sure!"

To Kenpachi she said, "If you have anything that needs to stay cool, feel free to put it in the fridge while you're here." She began to put things away. "I have sun tea, milk, water, (Faygo), and orange juice. Anything sound good?"

"(Faygo)?" Kenpachi said the word slowly, testing the word on his tongue.

"I told my dad that I missed it and he sent me some. It's a soda brand from where I used to live. The one he sent me is called Dark Cherry." She went to a cabinet and pulled out a glass. She then pulled out a can of the Faygo and popped the top, poured some in the glass and handed it to the large man. "Give it a try. I have more if you like it." She then put the can to her lips and drank some, the taste making her smile and look far away.

Kenpachi put the glass to his lips and gave the odd beverage a try. _Not bad_. "I'll take a can of that." She smiled and brought him over one. He imitated how she opened it and drank from the can like she was doing. She took the glass, rinsed it out and quickly tucked it into the dish washer.

"How about you, Ichigo?" She asked as she started pulling the pots and pans out of the box and putting them into a cabinet.

"What's sun tea?"

"My mom showed me how to make it when I was young. I even paid extra to make sure I could ship the jug over." She pulled a large glass container out of the fridge. "You put water and tea bags inside and set it out where the sun will shine on it. It's best to leave it outside on a nice hot day, but all I had was the window sill. As it sits in the sun, the tea steeps and mixes with the water. I like to use Red Rose tea, but that might just be a family preference. It's served with ice and usually either lime or lemon."

"I'll give it a try."

She nodded and made him a glass of it. She sheepishly held out a pair of little squeeze bottles. One was in the shape of a lemon and the other in the shape of lime. "If I were to buy lemons or limes, they would go bad long before I could use them. These have juice from the fruits in them so if you want to flavor the sun tea, just squirt a little into the glass and give it a stir." She set them in front of him along with a spoon.

He gave it an experimental taste, "Mmm! This is really good!" He added a little lemon to the tea and tasted again. "Oh! That's nice!"

Sara smiled, "I'm glad you like it."

The smile faded from her face and she began to pale. Her face became drawn as she said, "(Oh shit, not now. Why now?)" She grabbed a large Ziploc bag and began filling it with ice as she began to hold her fingers hard to her face. Just then Ichigo's substitute badge began flashing and buzzing loudly.

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**Thank you for reading. Reviews are appreciated and help to motivate me to write more.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Here's chapter 2. I hope you like it. No reviews yet and if I don't get any, I'm not sure if I should even continue the story.**

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The bag was now full of ice and she had it on the back of her neck. Her eyes were drooped and heavily lidded as she said, "What an odd looking cell phone."

Kenpachi looked at the girl. She hadn't had any spiritual pressure earlier and now he could see spikes of it coming from around her head. He noticed that every time it spiked, she winced. "What's wrong?" He asked her gruffly.

She winced, "Migraine. A really bad one. I'm sorry, I need to lay down or it won't get any better." She started stumbling towards her bedroom and Kenpachi motioned Ichigo to leave as he went over to help the girl to her room.

"I'll be right back. Just gotta grab this call." He called as he quickly used the badge to pop out of his body and go find the hollow that set it off.

"I'll stay here until he gets back." Kenpachi told the girl as he held the ice pack in place and kept her from falling.

She nodded weakly and laid face down on her bed with the ice pack resting on her neck.

"Why the ice pack?" He asked her for lack of anything else to do and it did make him curious.

"I find that if I can numb my head, the pain isn't so bad."

"I've never had a migraine. What is it like?" For someone that appeared tough, he wondered at how much pain she was in to make her sound and act so weak.

Her voice was muffled by the bedding as she replied. "There are two different types. The first is the kind where light and sound hurt so bad that you stay in a dark room and no one is allowed to talk above a whisper. The second is called migraine without aura. That's the kind I have. Light and sound don't hurt, but movement does. When I move even a little bit, it feels like my head is trying to spit itself apart." She shifted a little to get in a more comfortable position as she knew she would be there for a while and gasped and made a small whining sound in the back of her throat like she was trying desperately not to make it and clutched the bedding in a white knuckled grip that slowly relaxed.

Kenpachi sat at the desk that was near her bed and watched as her spiritual pressure continued to spike. The grip she had on the bedding would tighten and loosen with the spikes.

It was almost a half hour later when the spiking stopped and her spiritual pressure relaxed and stayed at a low level. She slowly sat up and he noticed that there was a large puddle of blood where her nose had been. It was still coming down, but she must not have noticed it.

"That's never happened before. The pain is just gone. No headache residue, no odd feeling, just gone and so fast. Normally it takes the better part of a day to get the pain to go away." She rubbed her head in disbelief.

Kenpachi pointed to the bed. "Do you normally get a nose bleed with it?"

"Nose bleed?" She touched a finger to her nose and pulled it away to see the blood. She looked to where he was pointing and stared at it in shock, "No. That's a new one on me." She wiped at her nose and saw the smear of blood on her hand. "I'll be right back. I need to take care of this."

Kenpachi could hear water running and went out to the living area to see Ichigo reentering the apartment and settling back into his body.

"There's something odd about that girl, Ichigo."

"Huh? So she saw the badge, I'll just have to make sure I keep it in my pocket around her."

"No. She was fine until that hollow showed up and I'm guessing you just killed it a few minutes ago?" The red head nodded. "Her migraine stopped then too. And now she's bleeding from the nose like I punched her."

The sound of water in the bathroom stopped and the guys walked to the entrance, looking at Sara who was hunched over the sink with blood steadily falling into the basin below her. Kenpachi could see that the garbage can was nearly full with wads of bloody tissues.

"You weren't bleeding that bad when you sat up." Kenpachi pointed out.

"Yeah, I went to blow my nose to try to get more of it out and it started doing this. I tried using tissues to stem the flow, but it's just not working." She turned the water on and directed the water with her hand to get more of the blood down the drain.

"We need to get you to my dad's clinic. It's not far."

"It's just a nose bleed. I'll be fine."

"Quit being stubborn. You're losing too much blood for this to be a normal nose bleed." He began looking around for something to use and found a hand towel in a dark color. He wet it and held it to her nose, placed one of her hands there and picked her up. While he was strong, Sara was pretty solidly built. He would be able to carry her, but would have to go slower then he wanted.

Kenpachi just grunted, took the girl from Ichigo and moved towards the door all the while Sara was saying, "I can walk. Put me down." Which Kenpachi ignored.

"Hey, Ichigo – grab my food, will you? My hands are full." Ichigo did and then led him back to his house at a quick pace.

At the clinic he quickly found his dad and explained the situation, knowing his dad was a former soul reaper. His dad listened patiently and quickly moved over to the room Ichigo had indicated Kenpachi had taken the girl.

When Isshin arrived to the room he saw the woman his son had mentioned and the captain of the 11th division arguing with each other. It looked like she was trying to get up, and he was only using one hand to hold her down.

"It's just a nose bleed. Let me go! It's stupid for me to be here."

"That's not just a nose bleed. What's your problem anyway? It's just a clinic."

"I don't like hospitals, ok?"

"I can understand that, but why avoid it when you clearly need to be here?"

"Can't say I have any good memories of hospitals. It's always something horrible." She mumbled irritably.

"That's a stupid reason to avoid them." He looked up to see Ichigo's dad and nodded to him.

"Good to see you again, Kenpachi." To Sara, "What seems to be the problem Peterson-san" He stumbled over the foreign last name.

"Just Sara is fine. It's just a bad nose bleed."

"Let me look." He took the cloth away from her nose and realized it was pretty heavily saturated. He tilted her head back and used a small flashlight to see deeper into her nose. "It's a good thing they made you come here. There are multiple blood vessels burst in both of your nostrils. I've never seen such a bad case. I'll have to cauterize them to get the blood to stop. And it wouldn't have stopped until they were cauterized. You would have been the first person I've ever heard of to die by nose bleed. As it is, I'm going to have to get you a unit of blood."

He left to get the device he would have to use. Kenpachi just wore a smug smile. He didn't see Ichigo and wondered where he had gone. Maybe he had gone to put the groceries away.

Isshin walked back in carrying a few items. He set most of them down on a counter and came back over to the bed with the cauterizing tool. "Normally, this just stings a little, but with the amount I'm going to have to cauterize, this will probably hurt. I would knock you out for this if I felt you could wait, but I can't. I can't even wait for a pain killer to take effect." As the devise heated, he said to Kenpachi, "I need you to immobilize her head. She's going to want to jerk away and if she does, I can end up doing more damage. Get behind her on the bed. She may even buck, so hold her at the waist too."

Kenpachi did as he was asked, more because it wasn't boring then any real interest in helping. Isshin tilted her head up to the position he wanted it and Kenpachi held her head there against his chest so she couldn't jerk backwards. He also pulled her body tight to his so she couldn't move too much and locked his other arm around her waist. He had to admit, she did feel pretty good against his body.

Isshin cleaned some blood from a nostril and quickly began to work on it. She didn't scream, but her teeth were clenched and she was breathing heavily through them. He could feel that she had every muscle clenched as well. She had tried to jerk her head away but he was able to overpower her. He could feel some dampness on his arm holding her head. _Must be crying._ He thought.

Isshin cleaned the other nostril and worked on it too. Sara's hand shot out and gripped the bed rail and the two men could see that spiritual pressure surged along her arm and hand as the sound of metal grating could be heard. Isshin was just about finished when Sara suddenly went limp. Kenpachi loosened his grip and Isshin checked to make sure she was still alive. She was. She had passed out from the pain. Isshin finished the procedure.

"To be honest, I'm surprised she lasted that long. Did you see what she did to the rail?"

They both looked to the rail and it had the distinctive pattern of the hand that had been gripping it squeezed into the metal. "See what she says when she comes to. We may have to explain about soul reapers and hollows." Kenpachi nodded. This was at least a little interesting. A possibly new substitute soul reaper and this one a foreigner girl at that. Kenpachi moved back to a chair and watched while the former captain used swabs to continue to clean out the girl's nose and face. He then laid her back down, put an ice pack over her nose, and hooked her up to an IV for the blood transfusion. When he was done, he left.

She woke up with a start, sitting up abruptly. She groaned and put a hand to her head. The hand she put to her head had the IV in it. The tube pulled and she let out an annoyed "Ow". She glared at the IV and bag. She switched hands holding her head and leaned into her legs. The cold pack had fallen when she had jolted awake and she realized it had been on her face from the coldness she was feeling in her nose. She picked it up and looked at it oddly.

"I see you're awake. You put up a good fight." Kenpachi chuckled lowly.

"(So dizzy.)"

"What was that?"

"Mmmph. Hard to concentrate. I said I was dizzy."

"You did lose a lot of blood."

"Is that why I feel like a day old kitten?"

"Probably."

It was then that Ichigo walked in carrying a couple bottles of juice and some sugar cookies. "Hey, I put your groceries away for you, Kenpachi. You really should lock your doors when you're away."

"Whatever. Nothing worth stealing in there and maybe I'll get to beat up a burglar or something."

Sara swung her legs over the side of the bed slowly and stood up. She looked a little shaky, but seemed to gain strength as she walked around the bed to the IV stand and rolled it over to a sink.

"What are you doing?" Ichigo asked. "You really shouldn't be walking around yet."

"I'm getting a drink of water and my face feels gross. I'm going to give it a quick scrub." She proceeded to turn on the tap and put her face underneath. Her eyes were closed and her mouth opened and closed as she drank deeply. She turned the tap off, and looked around for some soap; any soap, it didn't really matter to her. After finding some, pulled a hair tie from her pocket and pulled back her hair. She then turned on the tap, lathered up and used the soap on her face and then quickly scrubbed and rinsed off. The whole procedure only took a few moments as she wasn't trying to do some deep cleaning treatment, just trying to get the feeling of the blood off her face. When she opened her eyes to look for something to dry her face, Ichigo was there with some paper towel. "Thanks." She said as she took it and patted her face dry.

"My dad had me bring you something to eat and drink." He gestured to the juice and cookies that were on one of those bedside hospital trays.

"Same old, same old." She said softly.

"Same old what?" Ichigo asked.

"I think the whole phrase is 'Same old story, same old song and dance.' What I mean is that when I gave blood in high school, they offered juice and cookies then too."

"Why?" Kenpachi asked.

"Juice is high in natural sugars and the cookies have a lot of sugar in them too. They help to raise the amount of sugar in your blood which helps you not feel so weak and light headed after giving blood. It makes sense that they would do the same thing when you've lost blood." Sara replied.

She slowly walked back to the bed, wheeling the IV stand back to it's position beside the bed. She sat down, and noticing that her nose was beginning to burn, put the ice pack back to her nose.

Ichigo handed her one of the bottles of juice. She took it and tried to read the label. It looked like orange juice, but sometimes grapefruit juice looked similar. She supposed that it could be papaya juice as well. Seeing her hesitate, he gave a short laugh and said, "It's orange juice, Sara. What did you think it was?"

Sara opened the bottle and explained that she was trying to figure out what kind of juice it was before opening the bottle. "Bad experience with grapefruit juice once. Poured myself a nice tall glass thinking it was orange juice and had quite the surprise. Now all orange colored non-identifiable juice is suspect."

The mini story made both men chuckle. She took a long pull and offered the cookies to the guys. "I'm still pretty full from breakfast. Be my guest." Kenpachi shrugged and reached for one of them and munched away. He hadn't had anything to eat that morning and was starting to get hungry. When Ichigo refused the other cookie, Kenpachi grabbed that one too. Sara giggled a little and tossed the other bottle of juice to him which he drank as well.

The moment the IV bag looked empty, she pulled the IV out of her hand and said, "Ok, I'm done."

"What did you do that for? You could have damaged your vein by doing that!" Ichigo admonished.

"Like I said, I don't have a whole lot of good memories of hospitals. This isn't my first (rodeo)."

"What's a (rodeo)?" Kenpachi asked, saying the foreign word slowly.

Sara rubbed her face, "Ever see guys trying to ride bulls or horses that haven't been broken?"

"Why would you ride a broken horse?" He asked.

"I'm gunna go with a 'no'. It's probably just an American thing. My point is that I've done this before."

Ichigo was trying to follow the conversation and failed, "What does any of that have to do with you pulling the IV needle out of your hand?"

"I really need to stop translating American sayings into Japanese." She looked to Ichigo, "What do I owe your dad? I'll throw it on my credit card." As she was looking at him she started narrowing her eyes and then looked at Kenpachi. Her eyes widened.

"What?" He asked.

"I think I might be getting that other kind of migraine. I hear that seeing auras around things is usually a sign it's about to hit."

"You can see an aura around us?" Ichigo asked. She nodded. "I want you to look at me." She did and he raised his spiritual pressure a little causing the aura to glow brighter. Her jaw dropped. "It just got brighter, didn't it?" She slowly nodded. To Kenpachi, he held out the substitute soul reaper badge, "Do you want to show her, or do you want me to?"

The large man crossed his arms, "Just do it."

The red head nodded and pressed the badge to himself and she watched with a slight look of horror as his body fell to the ground but he still stood before her wearing odd black robes and had a large sword strapped to his back.

"You can see me, right?"

"(Mother fucker. What the hell?)"

Kenpachi smiled, guessing (correctly) that the girl was probably swearing. "What did you just say?" He asked.

"It doesn't translate well." She replied distantly. "You're going to have to explain, because while I've heard of having an out of body experience, this is ridiculous."

Ichigo explained with Kenpachi offering a few clarifying comments every now and then. Ichigo returned to his body and then pressed the badge to Sara which also caused her to leave her body. She did not have a soul chain like she should have and was dressed as Ichigo had been, but without a sword.

"Warn a girl!" She snarled at him. She looked down at herself and plucked at the odd clothing. "What's going on?"

"Looks like you're going to be another substitute soul reaper, like me." Ichigo responded. "Let me go get my dad." And he left.

"You're one too?" She asked the large man.

"Sort of. I'm not a substitute. I'm from the Soul Society like Ichigo's dad."

"So you're dead?"

"Sort of. I am a soul, but I was born there like Isshin was."

"How do I get back in my body?"

"Wait for Isshin to see you, but you just have to match your shape to the body's shape and you'll pop back in. It's a little harder for me to do because this isn't my body. It's how I look, but the body is called a gigai. It will respond like your body would, but it's artificial."

She nodded at this explanation even though it didn't make much sense. She sat back on the bed next to her body and stared at her feet with her head in her hands, elbows resting on her thighs.

Isshin walked in with Ichigo trailing behind him. As soon as they were in the room, they shut the door. Once they were all in the room, Kenpachi explained to the girl what he had witnessed when she started having her migraine earlier and what had also been happening at the time. He also pointed to the side of the bed where the rail was and what happened there. He hadn't really wanted to be the one to explain, but as he was the one who had seen it happen, he felt it should come from him.

The former captain turned to the girl, "I'll talk to Kiske about getting you a zampakuto. In the meantime, you need to start training. I don't have the time to train you, and Ichigo is too inexperienced. Kiske has often said his zampaukuto is poor for training anyone." He turned to the large man, "That leaves you, Kenpachi."

"No."

"Aww, come on, Captain Zaraki. Why not?" Isshin asked.

"Captain?" Sara asked as she merged back with her body.

"They didn't tell you?" She shook her head. "There are 13 squads of the Gokai 13. Kenpachi, here, is the captain of the 11th squad."

Sara shrugged her shoulders a little and said, "Oh."

"Oh? All you can say is 'oh'?!" Ichigo asked incredulously.

"You're going to patronize her because she doesn't know something that you failed to tell her?" The former captain asked his son.

He looked a little sheepish as he explained that the 11th squad was known for having the best fighters and what the name 'Kenpachi' actually meant. She looked at the man in question and nodded thoughtfully.

"Ok. Can I go home now? It's been an interesting day and this has been a lot to take in all at once. What do I owe you for stopping the bloody nose?" She looked as tired as she sounded.

"But, you need to start training." Ichigo replied.

"I believe we've already covered that. He said 'no'. Besides, I'm getting too old to start training in something new like this. I don't heal very quickly. Never have." The last statement was said rather softly with a faraway tone to it.

"You can't be that old. You're only, what? Early 20's?" Ichigo retorted.

Sara laughed. It was rich and seemed to come straight from her toes. "You're nice. But you're off by a bit. I'm 35, but it's nice to know I might look so young." The three men looked at her oddly. "I'd hand you my driver's license to prove it, but it's from back home and in English." She wiped a tear from her eye. "I haven't laughed like that in ages. It's been nice, but I'd like to go home now."

A little distracted, Isshin responded, "No charge, Sara. Ichigo, why don't you walk her home?" And left the room.

To Ichigo, "Don't worry about it. I'll see you at work tomorrow. And don't worry – I won't tell anyone. They wouldn't believe me anyway." With that, she hopped off the bed and headed home, leaving a few stunned men behind.

"35?" Ichigo said out loud.

"She does look younger than that, but she's a foreigner and a human. How can you even tell?" Kenpachi replied.

"Why won't you train her?"

"Not my job."

"Why are you here, anyway?"

"None of your damn business." He growled.

"If you aren't doing anything else, then why not?"

Zaraki just glared at the boy and walked back to his house and locked the door behind him. At home he looked around the kitchen, grabbed a few items and made himself something to eat. _I wish I could just tell the kid why. It would make everything so much easier. The girl was interesting. I wonder why she didn't protest. Probably scared her off. That's not right. She never once looked at me with fear. Not like Ichigo always seems to. I wonder what she meant about hospitals and not healing quickly._ Knowing he wasn't going to get any answers, he pushed the thoughts away, ate and then took a shower and changed his clothes.

* * *

It was a couple days later when Kenpachi realized he was going to need to go to the grocery store again. He found Ichigo to lead him there as he didn't feel like getting lost. Ichigo dropped him off at the grocery store and headed off to another, telling the captain he'd meet him back out front.

As Kenpachi was walking down an isle he saw Ichigo's coworker. _What was her name again? Oh yeah, Sara._ He thought to himself. She was squatting down and appeared to be glaring at a box of something in her hand. She was turning it around and finally just set it back on the shelf in exasperation.

"You really need to learn to read Japanese."

His voice caused her to jump a little, "Oh! It's you." She had a hand to her chest. "Yeah, I do. I've been trying, but I just can't seem to get it."

"Are you ok?" Gesturing to her hand that was still on her chest.

"You startled me and I'm waiting for my heart to return to a normal beating rhythm."

He chuckled. "Would you like some help?" She nodded with a relieved smile on her face. "What kind of foods are you looking for?"

She explained and he nodded. "None of these packages show pictures of the actual food! It just a bunch of large eyed cartoon characters!" She exclaimed at one point.

"I think it's just a Japanese thing." He pointed to one of the items she had been looking for.

She frowned at the box. "What does this actually say?" He read her the name and she took out a small notebook and a pencil and started writing. The first was likely the word in English and then she started to copy the words on the box.

"I think I see your problem."

"Problem?"

He pulled the paper and pencil from her hands and erased her attempt at the Japanese characters. "You're writing it backwards." He wrote down what she had been trying to and then handed the pencil and paper back to her.

She closed her eyes and opened them slowly, "I can't believe I forgot that." He laughed and they continued through the store, paid for their purchases and left the store.

"Thanks again, Kenpachi. Hopefully I won't have this problem the next time I go to the store."

He waved to her and walked towards Ichigo to get led back home.

"Did you two have a good time?" Ichigo asked while on the way home.

"She was squatting in the aisle looking at a box of baby food, trying to figure out what it was. I was already there, so I decided I may as well help her out."

Ichigo laughed at the image in his head. "So, will you reconsider training her?"

"I will, if you stop asking why I'm here." He finally conceded.

"Deal. I'll let her know tomorrow at work."

"We'll start day after tomorrow then."

Ichigo nodded and they continued on home.

The next day Ichigo stopped by Kenpachi's house after work to let him know that she had agreed and would be by tomorrow after work. She would be stopping at home first and then come from there, so wouldn't be back at the same time Ichigo was. Zaraki nodded and left it at that.

* * *

**Please review.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Thanks for the review! Here goes chapter 3. Again, reviews are always appreciated.**

* * *

"Where is she?!" Kenpachi roared at Ichigo. "She should have been here two hours ago! I finally agree to train her and she disrespects me like this?! Fuck her! And fuck you to!" He went to stomp inside when a shuffling sound drew his attention.

Sara was using the side of the house to steady her. She wasn't wearing any shoes and her feet looked like they were bleeding. The knees of her pants had been torn and her dirty and bleeding knees were exposed and there was also a dark stain at the crotch of the pants that looked suspiciously like blood. Her shirt was also torn with blood stains on it and it was hanging off one shoulder which also appeared to be out of socket. Her other arm was holding her ribs. Both hands were dirty, scraped raw and bleeding from multiple places. Her face would haunt Ichigo's dreams. Blood was dripping down from her mouth and her lips were swollen and split in multiple places. Her right eye looked sunken, like the cheek and orbital bones had been broken. Her eye was already black and puffy and she didn't look like she was really seeing what she was looking at. Her wrists had wide red abrasions around them.

As they moved towards her, she fell to her knees and began vomiting blood. They were at her side in an instant. Kenpachi gently lifted her up and Ichigo ran to get his dad. Kenpachi took her to the clinic part of Ichigo's house and laid her on the bed in one of the rooms. She was already unconscious long before he got there.

It wasn't more than a minute before Isshin was there. He took one look at the girl and was immediately on his cell phone.

"Kiske? Yeah, it's Isshin. I need you at my clinic now and bring Tessai. I'll explain when you get here." He snapped the phone shut and turned to his son and the 11th squad captain. "I need you to do exactly what I say when I say it." They both nodded. "Good. Ichigo, I need you to go get the rape kit." The red head nodded and left.

"Rape? She was raped?" The big man asked lowly.

"I think so."

"Why didn't she fight back? I've seen her punch some guy before." Kenpachi's face was cold. Isshin could tell that there were various emotions warring within the man.

Isshin lifted one of the girl's hands for Kenpachi to see. "She did, Kenpachi. She punched and clawed for all she was worth. It may be the only reason she survived." Isshin went to a cupboard and pulled out a large plastic bag. "I need you to help me remove her clothing. We're going to do this right and get all the evidence to the police."

"She said that your police don't care about foreigner girls like her. We need to go find those bastards." Kenpachi flexed his hands feeling the thrill of a fight anticipated slowly working it's way into his veins.

"We'll talk to Kiske when he gets here. For now, help me with her clothing."

They kept her covered as much as they could while they undressed her and all of her clothing went into the plastic bag. Her wallet and key ring were rescued and set on a counter. Ichigo returned with the rape kit at about the same time that Kiske and Tessai arrived.

"Kenpachi, please take my son and Kiske from the room and let him know what's going on. Tessai, you're better at healing kido then I am. I want you to start by popping her shoulder back into place and then heal the bones in her face and also I think she may have some internal damage. See what you can do about that."

As the two men went to work on Sara, Kenpachi led the other two men out of the room. Kenpachi turned to Kiske, "Can you make something to track down specific humans?"

"What happened to that girl in there? Is she the one I ordered the zampakuto for?"

"Yeah, she's the one waiting for the sword. If what Kurasaki in there says is true, then she was raped. My guess, by the amount of damage to her body, is that it was more than one guy. So can you?"

"I should be able to if the rape kit can collect enough of those animals."

It was several minutes before Isshin opened the door. They saw that her face was still bruised and Ichigo asked why Tessai didn't heal her completely.

"Well, Ichigo, there are several factors you have to consider when healing someone." He replied, pushing his glasses up. "What condition is the body in? A few broken bones, some cuts, and sure, healing them is no problem. This girl had, not only a traumatic experience, but had extensive internal and external injuries. Had I healed her completely, if she didn't go into shock due to the strain it would put on her body, she would have a hard time dealing with the experience if she didn't also get to see her body heal. When she wakes up and has more strength, we'll offer to heal her completely."

Kiske spoke quietly to Isshin, away from everyone else. Isshin finally nodded and handed the containers containing the girl's clothing, the swabs from the rape kit and the container holding the scrapings from under her nails. When he had them in hand, he turned to leave.

"Hey, you better call me when you have something, Urahara." Kenpachi growled.

"Eager to beat up a few humans, Zaraki? Isn't that beneath you?"

"You know me. I'm always up for a decent fight." Much softer he said, "Besides, these bastards deserve a good beating."

Kiske left with Tessai right behind him.

"Ichigo, see if you have anything that will fit her. The girls' clothing is going to be much too small for her."

Ichigo nodded to his dad and went to go find something that would be comfortable. It wasn't long before he came back down with sweat pants and a sweat shirt. Isshin had his son leave the room and the two older men dressed the unconscious girl.

"I'm taking her back to my house." Kenpachi declared.

"I'm not sure that's for the best, Zaraki."

"She said she doesn't like hospitals. Let her wake up in a real bed and I'll keep watch over her tonight. You can always stop by and make sure she's ok." Isshin gave him an odd look, knowing this didn't quite match with the large captain's personality. "I feel bad for being so mad at her before and I have to wonder if I had started training her right away if this wouldn't have happened. Are you satisfied?" he growled.

"I'll allow it. Be gentle with her, Kenpachi. Her body is still pretty battered. We were only able to heal the internal damages." Kenpachi nodded, picked the girl up and took her to his house. He only had the one bed set up, but it was a large king sized bed. He set her one side of it and pulled the blankets up over her and got in on the other side. He was soon asleep.

It was the early hours of the morning when the sounds of whimpering awoke him. He scooted closer to her.

"Hey, Sara. Wake up. You're safe now." He rubbed her arm. She started awake, gasping for air. She touched her ribs and her face and quickly took in that she wasn't in a hospital bed and that she thought she had heard Kenpachi. She turned to face him, confusion clearly showing on her face.

"What happened? I remember….." She trailed off as she looked at her hands which still showed signs of her fight. She touched her face again and winced at the pain.

"You made it here and Ichigo and I took you to Isshin. A guy he knows was able to heal the worst of the damage." He saw her looking around oddly. "I remembered you hate being in hospitals so brought you back to my house to keep an eye on you tonight. Do you want anything? Something to eat or drink?" She shook her head and laid back down, pulling the covers up protectively. Kenpachi scooted back over towards 'his side' and settled in. He was waiting for her to start breathing evenly, indicating that she was sleeping, but instead she curled her body into a fetal position and he could see the shaking of her body as she sobbed as quietly as possible.

Kenpachi got up and got the girl a glass of water anyway. When he came back into the room, Sara was still trying to hide the fact that she was crying. The large man was shirtless and made a point to not look at Sara as he set the glass on the nightstand beside her. She stared at his chest and the multitude of scars crisscrossing it. Compared to the two large vertical scars that went from his collar bones to almost the end of his rib cage, the rest looked rather small and insignificant. She quickly looked away.

"I'm sorry." She whispered.

"For what?"

"For waking you and then keeping you awake by crying."

"I usually have rules against crying, you know." He was making his voice light and playful, but he wasn't sure how she would perceive it. "I'll allow it this time." He made sure the smile was evident on his face.

She looked over to him and saw the smile and recognized that his tone had been teasing and not harsh like it had sounded.

He moved back to the other side of the bed. "I'm right here should you need anything. Even if it's just to talk." He saw her nod and closed his eyes and continued to listen to the various sounds Sara was making. She eventually quieted and he could hear her drinking the water he had brought her. She then settled back in and eventually he heard the even measured breathing of sleep and allowed himself to fall asleep as well.

Morning light streaming in through the nearby window woke Kenpachi. He saw that Sara was still sound asleep, so he got up and started making breakfast. He was just finished cooking when Sara stumbled out of the bedroom. She was unsteady on her feet as Tessai had not healed them. He watched her come to the island in the kitchen and pull out a stool and climb up it, all the while wincing in pain. He chose not to offer help as she has not asked for any and felt she may not want to be touched by anyone just yet.

"Whose clothes am I wearing?"

"Ichigo's I think. No one else had any clothing that might fit you and what you were wearing was pretty damaged. I hope you didn't have any attachment to any of it."

"What happened to my shoes?"

"Don't you remember?"

She took the offered plate of food and glass of orange juice and set them down. Kenpachi was leaning against the island across from her. She put a hand to her head, closed her eyes and was silent for a moment.

"I was fighting back. I was kicking out and one of the guys grabbed my ankle and tugged so I fell. He was mad at me and ripped the shoe off. I had already kicked him in the face with it. My other shoe must have been ripped off at some point too." She had spoken slowly, testing each word, all while her eyes were closed.

"Do you remember how many were there?"

"Four, I think." She whispered slowly and began shaking in fear.

"Hey. Open your eyes. You're not there anymore. Keep your eyes open and remind yourself that you're safe here." He had started to see tears forming at the corners of her eyes and he didn't want her focusing too much on the previous night.

She opened her eyes and slowly ate. He could tell that moving her mouth too much seemed to hurt her.

"Tessai said that once you were awake, I could ask you if you wanted him to heal you the rest of the way. He was concerned that healing you completely without being able to see your injuries may cause you to go into shock."

"Who's Tessai?"

"He was a kido master. I hear he performed one of the forbidden kidos and had to leave Soul Society when Kiske left. Kiske had been accused of experimenting on unwilling soul reapers, including his own lieutenant." He saw her face and added, "He wasn't the one who did the experimenting. He ended up saving their lives though and the only way to do that was with a forbidden kido."

"Who's Kiske?"

He laughed, forgetting that though his name had been mentioned in passing, she would have no way of knowing him. "Kiske is the former captain of the 12 division which is in charge of research and development."

"So the 12th is in charge of experimentation and the 11th is in charge of the fighting?"

"All soul reapers fight. The 11th just likes it more than the rest. We seek out the strongest opponents on the battlefield." She nodded in thought and winced at the movement. "I can call Tessai and have him over here if you like."

"Considering that everything hurts, I think that might be for the best."

Kenpachi nodded and pulled out his cell phone. He dialed Kiske and waited for him to answer.

"Yeah, Kiske, Sara's awake." "What? It's ready? Well bring it over already! I'm aching for a fight." "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever if it's beneath me. You think I care?" "No, I'm not letting her near them. Bring Tessai. She's ready for more healing." "Whatever. I'll see you soon." He snapped the phone shut and turned to Sara. "They're on their way and Kiske made a device to track the assholes who did this to you." His smile was a little frightening, "And then I'm going to have some fun."

Rosetta Stone did not teach much in the way of swearing, "Assholes?" She said the word slowly, getting the feel of it. Kenpachi explained and then she said, "Oh! (Assholes!) I got it." Kenpachi shook his head in amusement. "Why are you doing this?" She asked seriously.

"Aren't you happy that they are going to be brought to justice?" He said the last word oddly as it reminded him of that traitor Tosen and how he always went on about justice. He forgave himself for using the word as it really did apply to the situation.

"What's the point, Kenpachi? The police aren't going to do anything about it."

"Who said anything about bring them to the police?" He smiled widely. "I just said I would bring them to justice….. which just happens to look a lot like my fists…"

"You aren't going to kill them, are you?" She asked with a horrified look on her face.

"Considering what they did to you, you have a problem with them being killed?"

"No. I have a problem with you killing them on my behalf. I don't know if I could deal with knowing that I hand a hand, even such a small hand, in killing another human." She hugged herself and winced as her torso had taken a lot of damage.

"You humans are odd. They nearly killed you, and you don't want me to make it so that they can't ever do that to you or anyone else ever again?"

"I can't help it, Kenpachi. I wish horrible things on them all the time now, but at the same time, thinking of you killing them makes me feel horrible inside, like I'm no better than them. It's like if I let myself get to that level, I won't be human anymore."

He sighed. "Ok, I promise I won't kill them. I can't promise what will happen to them after that, but I'll leave them alive."

She gave him a small smile as anything larger would hurt too much. "Thank you."

When they were finished eating, He took the plates and set them in the sink for later and they waited for the two men to arrive.

They didn't have long to wait before Kiske walked in, followed closely by Tessai.

Kiske took in Kenpachi's lack of dress as he was still only wearing a pair of sweats. "You don't look ready, Captain Zaraki. Should I come back?"

"Don't you dare. I'll be right back." He went back to the bedroom, shut the door, and got dressed. He came back out a few moments later wearing his black boots, dark colored jeans and a black button down short sleeved shirt. He came out still buttoning it up and left the top couple buttons undone. He went to the bathroom and ran a brush through his hair and came out ready to go.

He noticed that Sara looked rather stiff and realized he hadn't introduced her to the other men when he left. He called himself seven kinds of a fool and quickly went up to her and got her attention.

"Sara, the man in green is Kiske and the taller man is Tessai. He's the guy that healed you last night. If you would feel more comfortable, I can have Isshin or Ichigo here with you." She looked down and shook her head. "Are you sure? You don't have to pretend to be ok to please me."

"I need to learn to trust again. And if you trust this man, I should be able to trust him too. I can't go through life being scared of everyone. If I do, then they've won."

He appreciated her fighting spirit. I would come in handy when he started training her. He gave her shoulder a light squeeze and walked out with Kiske.

Tessai bowed low to Sara, "Peterson-san, please come and lay on the couch. It will be easier for me if you are lying flat. I see you have eaten which is good. You will need a lot of strength for me to finish healing you."

"Just Sara is fine." She got off the stool and hobbled to the couch and laid down.

He healed her feet first and then her hands and face as those were areas he could see and then asked her what else hurt. She explained and he healed each one. By the time he was done, she was exhausted. He helped her to the bed and tucked her in. When she started to nap, He took her keys and went next door to Ichigo and told him to get the girl some of her own clothing. Ichigo did as he was asked and the clothing was waiting for her when she woke up several hours later. Happy to see her own clothing, she took a long shower and was dressed again when Kenpachi came back home.

She was surprised to see him bruised and a little bloody. His lip was split and his cheek looked bruised. He walked in with a big grin on his face and took a seat on the couch. He was happy to see the girl walking without pain and seeing her face without bruises. She looked well rested and much more like the Sara he had seen at the grocery store.

She hurried to the freezer and pulled out some ice and laid it in a towel and rushed over to the large man. She gently laid the impromptu ice bag against his cheek.

"Quit your fussing over me, woman. It's nothing."

"Let me." For a brief moment, their eyes caught each other's.

Kenpachi reached up and touched the cheek that had been bruised. "Tessai does good work. It's nice to see you walking normally again."

Sara blushed and looked away. "Hold the ice pack. I'll grab something to clean your lip."

He held the ice pack in place. It did feel nice against his cheek. And he had to admit, it was nice being fussed over.

She went back to the kitchen and wet a wash cloth. She came back to the couch and kneeled on it while dabbing and wiping at his lip. "So, what happened?"

"We found them. It was easy because they were all together. Apparently, they take women frequently because they were at work on another one. I don't have to ask you how you got those wide marks around your wrists. I saw it for myself. One of the bastards had a belt around the girl's wrists and a foot on her shoulder which is how I'm guessing yours was dislocated?" She nodded. Her eyes were filling, but she deserved to know.

"It looked like one was seeing how many bruises he could make on the girl's breasts." She looked away and nodded. _Isshin knew then. I was behind her supporting her when we were removing her clothing at the clinic. He had covered her up quickly. I thought he was just granting the girl some modesty after what happened. He didn't want me to see. _"I think they were surprised to see me. The girl they were working on wasn't sure if she should be happy or scared when she saw me and Kiske."

"I said to Kiske, 'Oh look, a bunch of cowards who can't get a woman without abducting her from the streets.' They didn't like that. Three of them moved towards me and the forth stayed there holding the girl by the belt on her wrists." He continued.

_"Oh no, if you really want a sporting chance, all four of you should come at me at once."_

_ The three guys looked at each other feeling a little smug. Sure the guy was big, but did he just say he would take on all four of them by himself?_

_ "What about hat and clogs over there?"_

_ "He knows better than to get in my way during a fight."_

_ "What's your problem, man? We don't have any beef with you." One of the thugs asked who had what looked like deep scratches down his face. Seeing evidence of Sara fighting back made him happy._

_ "Oh, but you do. You should have never taken the girl you did last night."_

_ "She your girlfriend or somethin'?"_

_ "Nope. Just my student and you interrupted our first lesson. Now, I'm gunna have to take it out on you boys."_

_ The guy holding the girl down laughed and admonished the girl to stay put as he went over to his friends. When Kiske was sure that they were going to fight the captain of the 11__th__ squad, he went over to the girl and removed her bindings and covered her in his long jacket. _

_ He sat down next to her and said, "We might as well enjoy the show. You don't see something like this every day." She was too battered to protest and watched it all wide eyed._

_ "Well, come on. I'll even let you have the first punch." _

_ Unlike anyone in Soul Society, these punks took him up on the offer. Not only did they all fight him at once, the guy who had been bruising the girl stepped forward and decked Kenpachi in the face. He was surprised at the amount of pain the punch gave him, but realized that with his spiritual pressure so reduced, a normal human's punch would now have some weight behind it. _

_ He laughed and said, "My turn." As he punched the kid in the jaw. He was surprised that even though the kid went down, he got back up. He was happy to see that the guy at least had what looked like it would become a nice fat lip from the punch._

_ Kenpachi laughed as he fought, taking some hits and laying about him with his own fists. It was a good fight. He wondered if all his sparring should be done like this. _

_ When he was finished, he went over to Kiske and the girl. She was terrified, he could see it in her eyes. "Let's take her and these bastards to the police. I promised Sara I wouldn't kill them and I'm really wishing I hadn't agreed to that right now." To the girl, "Can you walk?" She nodded. "Good." He went over to the thugs and started hauling them onto his shoulders. None of them were really big men, but after lifting three of them, he was staggering under their combined weight. _Damn these seals!_ He thought. Kiske slung the last man over his shoulders and used his other hand to guide the girl. He took the lead so that they didn't end up all over the city and eventually get lost. _

_ They walked in to the police station, dropped the unconscious men on the floor and pushed the girl forward. When she started talking to an officer, they quickly left, not wanting to answer any questions._

Sara listened with her head lowered and when he finished, he lifted her face to look at him. "I want you to move your things here, Sara."

She narrowed her eyes and pulled away. "Why?"

"We ended up going by your apartment. I know it was yours because I recognized the building and the sun tea jug in the window. When I pointed out your apartment to Kiske, he told me that the area you're living in is not a safe one especially for a woman living alone."

"I knew that when I rented the place. Compared to some places back home, it's really not that bad."

"The only time I want to see you covered in that much blood is when it's someone else's and you've defeated them. I already talked to Kiske and we're going to move you tomorrow."

She got off the couch. "You have no right. You didn't even ask me."

"You froze up when Kiske and Tessai arrived here earlier and you think you can go back to living alone?"

"That's not my point, Kenpachi. I barely know you and you're making decisions for me without even consulting me."

"What is it that is upsetting you? Do you not trust me? Do you feel that you would be safer in your apartment? Or are you mad that I didn't ask your permission first?"

Sara was standing in the middle of the room, turned slightly away from the large man so he couldn't see her face. "I'm mad that you didn't ask me. I do trust you and I do feel safer with you, but you didn't even bother to ask me my opinion. Do my feelings even matter to you?"

"Your safety matters to me more than whether or not I make you upset by disregarding your feelings."

She chuckled darkly. "At least you're honest about it."

"Since you're feeling better, let's start training."

"My body may be healed, but my mind is still a little messed up. Give me a day and we'll start Monday after I get home from work."

"Are you sure you're ready to go back so soon?"

"It's Saturday. Assuming that Ichigo didn't tell anyone at work, it would be for the best. Get me back to a normal routine as soon as possible."

"What kind of contract did you have with the apartment?"

"Only a month to month. I was going to look for something else as soon as I was secure in my job."

"Good. How about we figure out which room will be yours?"

"I'm still very upset with you, Kenpachi."

"If we were training today, you could take it out on me. I wouldn't mind." He grinned.

She caught his grin and held in her own. He stood up and walked towards the bedroom that would be next to his. It was the second largest in the house and like his, had an attached bathroom.

"Think of it this way, you've been upgraded."

She pushed him with a mixture of cooling anger and playfulness. He, of course, didn't move.

"What are you? Part boulder?"

"Just expected the movement and planted my feet. Are you sure you don't want to take your anger out on me?"

She shook her head and hugged herself. "Not today."

He left her to her thoughts and began making dinner which they later ate quietly.


	4. Chapter 4

**Hello. I wanted to clear up a few things as I ended up getting a review that really should have been a PM. I chose to not allow the review through for a couple reasons. The first is, as I said, it really should have been a PM, not a review and second, a lot of what I was being negatively reviewed about was actually incorrect information. So, I'd like to talk about it.**

**1. Kenpachi's height: The manga has his height at 202 cm. I have looked this up multiple times as I can never get a good mental image on sizes in metric. Converted to the Standard version the United States still uses, that puts the large man at 6'6"/6'7", not the 7 1/2 feet that was in the review. The beef was apparently Sara's height and that it would unheard of for a woman to be that tall, even an American woman... I described Sara as coming to his collar bone. That means it's the top of her head coming up to his collar bone. I don't know about you, but from my collar bone to the top of my head is about a foot. Even assuming that this would be the same for everyone, that would put Sara at 5'6" which is pretty average for an American girl of European ancestry.**

**2. That I have Sara being groped a lot while in Japan: Yes, this happens, but not nearly to the extent I've described it... it's called artistic license, and I thought it would be an interesting way for the character of Sara to be introduced. I first heard about this from someone's blog. She had said she had been living in Japan for a while and would get groped every now and then (among many very odd things) and when she called the police about it, they didn't feel they could help her, stating, "boys will be boys."**

**3. Knowing how to use San and Chan: The gripe was that if she had been studying for so many years, she would know this. To this, I have a couple things to say. The first is that I'll admit, I'm lazy and didn't want to remember to use it after the names all the time. Second is this - I studied Spanish for 8 years and that is with the books and the instructors and having to pass or fail. So while I studied very hard, I was also getting correction during that time and you know what? I've lost so much of the language that today, I could probably carry on a conversation with a 5 year old about what colors they like the best. To be fair, I always felt that my ability with the language was pretty elementary. If anything, you should be griping that Sara is so fluent in a language that she probably only studied for a few years and at that it would have only been a listen and repeat thing.**

**4. The dialect book: I took a guess. I saw that there are multiple dialects used in Japan. I took a guess that some of the words might be written differently enough that a translation book could be hit or miss.**

**At the end of the day - If you don't like what I'm writing - don't read it.**

* * *

The next day they woke early, showered and were at her apartment packing when Kiske, Tessai, and Ichigo showed up to help. Kenpachi had been surprised that she didn't have any nightmares but hadn't gotten a chance to ask her about it yet.

Kiske had rented a truck and while Sara packed, the men moved the furniture and boxes into the truck. It ended up taking only one trip and it was late by the time they were back at Kenpachi's house and ready to begin unpacking. Most of the bedroom furniture was already in place so other than clothing, little needed to be unpacked that day. Her living room furniture had been placed in another bedroom along with all the boxes holding her things.

They were eating dinner when Kenpachi said, "You seemed to sleep well last night. No bad dreams?"

"Are you asking me if I had nightmares?"

He lifted a corner of his mouth in a half smile, "I guess I am."

"I don't get nightmares. I think what I get is far worse than that."

"What do you mean?"

"I've never had a nightmare. For whatever reason, my mind seems to know it's a dream and anytime something tries to attack me in a dream, I kick the crap out of it. What I get is something called sleep paralysis. Ever hear of it?"

"No. What is it?"

"How to explain? When you sleep, you don't move, or if you do, it's very little. If you are running or fighting in a dream, your arms and legs don't move around in the waking world too. In a way, your brain paralyzes you so you don't harm yourself while you sleep. With sleep paralysis, your mind is conscious, you are awake, but you can't move and what might have normally been dream images become hallucinations. They always seem to be dark and because you can't move, can barely talk if at all, and you have this weight of fear on your chest they are far scarier than any nightmare could be."

"How often do you get these?"

"Thankfully, not very often. I tend to get them when I'm really stressed, but to be honest, I've been expecting one. The act of falling asleep has become my nightmare. Will it be tonight? Will it be tomorrow? Next week?"

"What do you do when you get one?"

"Claw my way to being fully awake and then walk around. If you try to go back to sleep right after having a sleep paralysis episode, it will play on a loop. You think you're going to sleep but you fall back into that hallucination and it starts back at the beginning and you have to fight your way awake again and again. I didn't know that when I was young. I figured it out when I got older and noticed that if I got up right after I got out of the hallucination, when I would try to sleep again, I would actually sleep. Of course, because I'm stressing about it, I'll probably get one soon. I really hate them, Kenpachi."

"At least you know how to combat them." She nodded. "What about that first night? You looked like you were having a nightmare then."

"I thought I was still there. I was in a lot of pain and I didn't remember walking here."

Kenpachi nodded in thought and then asked, "Did you want to sleep in my bed again tonight?"

"If you don't mind. I have no idea which box my sheets are packed in."

That night she set the alarm clock in the room and made sure she knew how to turn it off.

The buzzing of the alarm clock woke her up and she went over to turn the alarm off. Kenpachi, on the other hand, who had never used an alarm clock was up and ready to fight. When he saw Sara turn off the clock, he allowed himself to relax.

"I'm sorry I woke you. You can go back to sleep if you want."

"No, I'm awake. I'll go make breakfast."

"You don't have to. I have cereal." He waved a hand at her negligently and walked to the kitchen. She shrugged and hopped in the shower. By the time she was done, he already had eggs and hash browns waiting for her.

"What time will you be home tonight?"

"I get off work at 4 and it will take me about a half hour to get here."

Kenpachi nodded. "You'll be walking home with Ichigo?"

She chuckled at his protectiveness, but liked it all the same. It was nice to know someone cared about you. "Yes."

It was about time to leave when there was a knock at the door. Kenpachi answered it and opened the door for Ichigo.

"Did you set this up, Kenpachi?"

"Yes, while you were in the shower."

She shook her head ruefully at him, grabbed her things and left for work with Ichigo.

* * *

It was 4:30 and Kenpachi was beginning to get antsy. He recognized that he was being silly and overprotective, but this girl seemed to need it.

It was 4:40 and he was now pacing and growling. They both came running up and he spun on them, anger clearly showing on his face.

Before Kenpachi could ask, Sara intercepted the large man, "It was a hollow. I had to watch Ichigo's body while he fought it. We knew we were going to be late, so as soon as he killed it, we ran the rest of the way here."

The captain visibly relaxed. "Do you have a cell phone?"

Sara shook her head, "They took it from me and smashed it on the ground. I haven't had a chance to get a new one."

"We will pick you up one tomorrow and you will put my number in it." She nodded. "Good. Go get changed into something you can move in."

She left and did so. She came back in a t-shirt and yoga pants. Ichigo was trying to get a better look at her butt, but Kenpachi smacked him and sent him home.

"Have you had any training with hand to hand?" He didn't expect her to have, but it didn't hurt to ask.

"My mom had a fad that lasted a couple months where she wanted to learn karate and made me come with her. I know enough to know how to punch and kick properly without breaking my bones. That's about it."

He nodded and said, "Let's see what you can do then." He threw some punches at her and she dodged or blocked, so he picked up the pace and encouraged her to counter. He did not actually strike her, but would lightly smack the area with his hand, fist, or foot so she could see that she had left herself open.

At one point, she was countering with a punch and he grabbed her wrist. The light immediately went out of her eyes and her face became drawn.

"Awww, shit!" He picked her up and brought her in to the house and set her on the couch. By then she had snapped out of it. She put her head in her hands and hid her face from Kenpachi as tears started to fall down her face.

"I'm sorry, Kenpachi."

He crouched in front of her and lifted her face so she was looking him in the face. "You have nothing to apologize for, Sara." He took one of her hands in his and held her at the wrist. He tightened his grip while staring at her. Nothing that would hurt, but enough that she wouldn't be able to pull her hand away. She stayed as she was, no freezing and no far away looks. "I think I surprised you. We will need to work so that you don't freeze in the middle of a real fight." He release her wrist and used a thumb to wipe away some tears from her face.

"I think we've worked you hard enough for today. You're doing better than I was expecting you to. You need to hit me harder though. Don't be afraid to hit me." She gave him a small smile but didn't say anything. He got up and started making dinner and she got up and helped him.

After dinner, she grabbed a shower and started to unpack. She found her sheets and was happy to make up her bed. She was listening to her ipod and was singing along to the songs as she worked. She thought she had been singing low enough that Kenpachi wouldn't hear her, but he had been watching her anyway. He couldn't understand a thing she was singing, but it didn't bother him. He just enjoyed listening to her sing. He was leaning against the doorframe and she turned around to go to the other room and grab another box to unpack.

She had collapsed the box and was turning around, "(Hold me closer, tiny dancer!)" She opened her eyes and threw the box up in the air which made the large man laugh. He picked up the box as Sara pulled the earbuds from her ears and clutched a hand to her chest as she bent over and gasped for breath.

"Are you ok?"

"You scared me."

"I see that. Are you ok though?"

Sara took a few deep breaths and stood up, her face red with embarrassment. "I'm ok. Just a little embarrassed."

"Why? You sing very well."

"I don't sing in front of people."

He let it drop for now. He would ask Ichigo later. Ikkaku had once mentioned something called karaoke bars where people would sing songs.

He left her to her unpacking as she had stopped listening to her ipod. It was unfortunate, he had really enjoyed watching her when she was unguarded like that. She ended up unpacking everything that night as she hadn't been able to bring much with her to Japan and hadn't had a chance to buy much that wasn't necessary. She added her kitchen things to his and left most of her living room things in the spare bedroom. They did end up swapping out a few pieces to make his house a little more inviting to Sara. Considering that he didn't have any attachment to any of the items in this house, he offered to switch out all the living room furniture, but she demurred, not wanting to take over his house.

* * *

That night she slept in her own bed and her morning alarm clock did not wake the large man. She poured herself some cereal and started munching away. She was halfway through the bowl when Kenpachi woke up and entered the kitchen bare-chested and wearing sleeping pants.

He wrinkled his nose at her choice of breakfast. The vibrant colors of some sugary cereal assaulted his eyes. "What the hell is that?" He asked, pointing at the bowl she was eating from.

"It's just cereal."

He mumbled something that sounded like, "I thought Yachiru was back at Soul Society."

"What was that?"

Rather than answering, he countered her with, "How can you eat so much sugar in the morning?"

"It wakes me up and keeps me full until lunch. What's your problem with it?"

"You're going to need more protein in your diet now that you're training with me. In the future, let me at least be in control of your diet for morning and evening meals. You will end up burning through too much energy eating things like that and expecting to train after. Just….. trust me in this, ok? This also isn't my first…. What did you call it? (rodeo)?"

She lowered her head and smiled while nodding. It wasn't long before Ichigo was knocking on the door to walk with Sara to work.

When they left, Kenpachi pulled out a pad of paper and started making a grocery list. They were going to have to go out to get her a new cell phone, so figured they should get food as well. The list was mostly full of protein rich foods along with some carbs and some fruits and vegetables. He had seen a program on the TV yesterday that used a blender. Maybe he could pick up some of that protein powder he saw in the store and mix it with some fruit and vegetables and force that down the girl's throat. If he had to be in charge of her training, then she was going to regret it. By the end, she may hate him, but she'd be able to handle herself.

He checked the kitchen and found that there was, in fact, a blender. He also checked to make sure that this house had a weight room of some kind or that was going to be going on the credit card too. He was a little disappointed, but there were at least some free weights and a weight bench. He was going to train her like she was a member of the 11th squad whether that was Isshin's intention or not.

He was waiting outside for the pair at 4:30 and was happy when they were on time. He was about to head to the shopping district when Sara stopped him.

"Let me get out of these work clothes first. I'll be right out." He nodded and waited for her to come back out. When she did, they headed out with Kenpachi following Sara's lead. They made a wrong turn, but she quickly corrected it.

_Definitely a better navigator then Yachiru at least._ Kenpachi thought jokingly. He was used to many wrong turns before finally finding where he was going. It was a nice change.

Once they got her a new cell phone, Kenpachi immediately programed it with his cell number. She had insisted on paying for it, so he allowed her. They then went to the grocery store and Kenpachi pulled out the list he had made. Sara was a little surprised at his choices and helped carry everything back to the house.

As soon as they got home, he pulled out the blender and a large pitcher with a top. He started chopping up fruits and vegetables and put them in the blender, added some grape juice and the protein powder. He blended up and poured it in the container after trying some to make sure it didn't taste bad.

"What's that?" Sara finally asked.

"Breakfast tomorrow. I want you to drink at least 1 large glass of it in the morning. Try for two if you can." He replied.

She made a face. He glared right back until she lowered her gaze. When he finished with the blender, he had her get dressed for training and worked her until she could barely move. When they were done, he made dinner and watched her to make sure she was eating enough.

She grabbed a shower and fell into bed, exhausted.

* * *

They settled into a routine and she came to enjoy the breakfast drinks. She was never able to get a second glass in, but did find that it kept her full through most of the day and only needed a light lunch. She started lasting longer in training and they moved on to the weight training as well and began alternating days between fighting training and physical training. Her body was beginning to respond to the regimen as her muscles started to become defined. Even her abs were beginning to form up. She had never had a 6 pack of abs and she didn't yet, but they were definitely forming.

It was only a couple days into training when Kenpachi woke up to the sound of a TV on low. He checked the alarm clock. _It's only 1:27. Why is the girl up?_ He got out of his bed and walked to the living room to find Sara with dark circles under her eyes, staring blankly at the TV.

"Why are you up? You have work in the morning."

"Sleep paralysis. I can't get the loop to stop even by getting up and walking around."

"What do you see?"

"Those men. They keep coming towards me and even though I keep telling myself that it's not real and you already beat the crap out of them, but I just can't get it to stop." She looked up at the large man and the look on her face made him soften towards her.

"Wanna try sleeping in my bed?"

"I'm willing to try just about anything at this point."

He turned off the tv and walked towards his bedroom. She followed him to his room and took "her side" of the bed. She crawled under the covers and Kenpachi waited for her to fall asleep. It wasn't long before she started back up and held her head in her hands.

"Still there?"

She nodded. He pulled her over to him and had her lay her head on his shoulder. She squeaked at the sudden movement.

"Try again. Maybe the closeness will help keep them away." He stroked her back soothingly as he had when Yachiru would have nightmares. She had stiffened at first and slowly relaxed into his arms and was finally able to fall asleep. She twitched horribly. He didn't remember her ever twitching in her sleep before. She suddenly gasped and grabbed her side, now completely awake.

"What happened?" He asked, concern clear in his voice.

"I tried to push through the sleep paralysis through to normal sleep. I'm never doing that again." She tried to settle back in against Kenpachi's side but afraid to even try to close her eyes.

"What happened?" He asked again.

"It was kind of like a regular dream but not. I was in a car with a friend from back home. We were talking when some dark figure just crossed in front of us and suddenly he was at my door, swinging this ax and it crumpled the metal of the door and bit into my side. When I woke up, I could feel this memory of pain there, but I didn't hurt."

He nodded. He didn't know what to tell her as he had never experience what she was describing and had never heard of anyone having this either. He placed one of her hands on his chest and held it there and pulled her in closer with his left arm that had been stroking her back with.

"Try again, Sara."

She did and again woke up with a start. "This isn't working, Kenpachi." She was close to tears being physically and now emotionally exhausted from being unable to sleep.

"Come on then, we'll go watch tv for a while and maybe you'll fall asleep then."

"You don't need to lose sleep too, Kenpachi."

"It's fine. I've gone without sleep in the past and maybe it will help that someone is there with you. On the bright side, now that this has happened, you probably won't get it again. At least for a while anyway."

"Ha. I'm not sure I would call this the bright side." She dragged the pillow and covers out to the couch and the large man followed. She laid down and he sat at her head, eventually pulling her up so her head was on his thigh. His right arm hung just below her neck. Low enough that it wouldn't choke her and high enough that he wasn't touching her breasts. He turned on the tv and found something they could both watch. It was in English with Japanese subtitles. It kept her giggling the entire time, which was a nice sound. The movie was called "What About Bob". He found the movie to be silly and a little stupid, but he sat through it regardless. It was after the movie at around 5am when she finally dropped off to real sleep. He waited until he knew Ichigo would be up before calling him and telling him that the girl wasn't going into work that day.

When Sara did finally wake up, it was closer to noon and Kenpachi had let his head fall back and was snoring. Her sudden movement work him up.

"Oh no! Why didn't you wake me up? I'm so late!"

"Relax, I already called Ichigo and told him to tell your work that you were sick today. On the bright side, now that you're awake, we can train." His lips spread in a large grin and she groaned.

She got up and got dressed and when she came out he was also dressed and holding out a glass of the morning drink out to her. As she drank, he made himself some eggs, bacon, hash browns and toast.

"How come you aren't drinking this too?" She asked.

"I don't need to build muscle like you do and you don't cause me enough physical exertion to need to change my diet."

Sara gave him a dark look and he laughed at her.

"You mentioned someone named Yachiru a few days ago? Who is that?"

"Before I became a captain, I wandered the outer districts looking for a good fight. There were these bandits that were killing these people. They looked like they wanted a fight so I fought them and eventually killed them." He looked at her directly to see how she would react. "It was a boring fight and they didn't put up nearly enough fight to even make it interesting." He was surprised to see she kept her face impassive. She was a human, she should be looking at him with horror. "At any rate, I was sitting against a tree after the fight and this little baby crawled over to me and started playing in the blood and touching my bloody sword, completely unafraid. I adopted her and named her Yachiru. I didn't have a name back then either, so named myself Kenpachi that same day."

"You didn't have a name?"

_Of all the things in the story she asks about that? _ He thought before answering. "I don't even remember having parents."

"How did you even survive?" She asked.

"I'm not sure. If you don't have spiritual pressure in the Soul Society, you don't get hungry and you don't develop spiritual pressure as an infant. It shows itself a little later and grows with you. So that helped, I'm sure."

They sat in silence for a little while, her drinking and him eating. Finally he asked her, "How about you?"

"Well, I can't say I've ever killed anyone or adopted a child." She replied with a grin.

"You know what I mean. What is it like growing up here?"

"Here? I don't know. Maps help. Hold on." She walked quickly to her room and started rummaging around. It was a little silly, but she kept a map of the world for no better reason than to remind her where home was. She came back out and smoothed the map on the kitchen's island counter. She pointed to where they were in Japan. "We're here." She traced a finger over to the United States and to a mass of land that looked like a left hand. "This is the state of (Michigan) in the county called (The United States of America). I know – kind of a long name. Usually it's just shortened to (The USA) or even just (The US)." She moved her finger to an area at what would be the base of the thumb. "This is right about where the city of (Detroit) is. I grew up several miles north of it."

"That's a long way away. So what was it like?"

"Well, for starters, it's a lot colder there. And there are cars everywhere. You almost need one to get around. I would never have been able to walk to work back home. I've had jobs where just driving there by car takes a good hour. Walking to the grocery store was equally just not done. It was either too far away or you were buying too much to be able to just walk it home. Cars are just so…. convenient there. And it's so visually loud here! Remember how when you saw me in the grocery store and I was complaining about all the cartoon characters and how there weren't any pictures of just the food?" He nodded. "The only things that had cartoon characters on it were kids' foods and you could still see a picture of the food!" He laughed at that. He too found the cartoon characters annoying.

"What else?"

"It's the end of February. I'm used to there still being about a foot of snow on the ground if not more. This is warm for me." He was a little surprised by this statement. "I have an older brother and a younger brother. They're both married and have kids. They used to tease me about when I was going to start having kids, but I never wanted them. They stopped teasing me when Alex died." She looked down, realizing she had just brought the conversation to a morbid turn. She regretted it instantly. She swallowed the last of the drink, slammed the cup down and said, "Come on. Let's go train." And walked out to the back yard where they had been practicing.

_What just happened? I thought we were having a decent conversation. _He decided to give her a few minutes, so he took his plate and her cup, put them in the dishwasher which would give it a pretty full load so he decided to turn it on. He looked over to her map and appreciated again how far away from her old home she really was.

* * *

**Sleep paralysis is a real thing, this is just about the only thing of me in the character 'Sara'. They say to write what you know, and sleep paralysis is something I know very well. There are 3 kinds of people in the world; those who will never experience it, those who may experience it once or maybe twice in their lifetimes and then there are people like me who will experience it off and on throughout their lives. I hear it's a gateway to being able to have out of body experiences... I say, can't I just get the nightmares and not have the SP? The dream she had while pushing through the SP is one I had while trying to do the same thing. I thought that if I just keep on trying to force my way to real sleep I won't have the SP, right? Nope. And like Sara, I won't ever try that again!**

**Please review. They help give me inspiration to write more.**


	5. Chapter 5

**So, here's chapter 5. I hope you like it. You'll see a little bit more of how Sara and Kenpachi interact with each other and a peek into Sara's past. A quick note - I've never seen anything that explains if everyone who dies goes to Soul Society or if only certain people go, so I decided to have Kenpachi give an explanation based on a guess I have.**

* * *

When he finally went to the back yard he saw her on the ground doing push-ups. Her form had definitely improved. In the beginning she was doing what she called "girl push-ups". He had called it cheating and had forbidden her from ever doing such a crappy push-up again on pain of having to do them over lit candles.

"On your fists now. Your wrists are too weak for a sword fight." He growled at her and she obediently switched. _She would make a good squad member. Only have to tell her to do a thing once and no complaints. I've been pretty tough on her. I wonder how hard I have to push her before I do get a complaint. Did she throw herself into this like she has to escape what happened to her? I can't blame her, but she needs to confront that and soon. What would I do if she were Yachiru?_ His eyes blazed at the thought of Yachiru being harmed like that. _ Well, if she didn't kill the bastards, I sure of hell would have. And she would have laughed while I did it not pleaded with me to not kill them. She sure is odd. She's fairly cheerful for someone whose fiancé was killed by a drunk driver and who was raped by 4 guys. How does she do it?_ He snapped his thoughts to the present. "That's good. Your muscles should be nicely warmed up. Now attack me."

She got up, brushed the dirt off her hands and knuckles and got into a fighting stance. She cautiously strode towards him and then burst forward with a touch of speed and a frontal kick. He blocked it and she quickly went for a punch to his face while his hands were occupied with the block. The kick had been a ruse. He was still far too quick for her and blocked the punch too while countering with one of his own. She ducked and aimed a fist at his side. He quickly brought a knee up to her face, taking the potential jab to the ribs. It barely connected as she was more focused on the knee coming at her face and quickly distanced herself from him.

"You need to do better than that, girl." He grinned at her and she shook her head ruefully at him.

They continued like this for a while before she had to take a quick breather, hands on her knees huffing as she caught her breath after Kenpachi had landed a good punch to her gut, knocking the wind from her lungs.

"How do you always know what I'm going to do?" She asked.

"Fighting is what I do. You've given me a few surprises, but you telegraph your moves too much to ever really land a good hit on me. That's not to say that others would know what you are doing, but like I said, fighting is what I do. It's my job to be able to think ahead of my opponent. Don't get me wrong, I love a mindless brawl, but a real battle is won here first." He pointed to his head. "Over time you will develop a fighting instinct. I see some of it in you when you dodge an attack I know you didn't have time to see coming. In a few weeks we'll add the practice sword to the training. Have you ever swung a sword?"

"No. I don't think I've ever even held one before."

He nodded in thought and then seemed to snap out of it. "It's time for a break." He moved over to a bench and took a seat. She sat down next to him and finally asked him the question he had been expecting.

"Will Alex be in the Soul Society waiting for me?" She didn't look at the large man.

"No. He won't."

She looked up at him in surprise. She hadn't expected that answer. If the Soul Society was where people went when they died, shouldn't Alex be there then?

He looked up, thinking of how to explain. "In the world of the living, there is an area that is always present called a high spiritual zone. Every now and then it will move, but it stays in one place for many decades, sometimes even a century. Only people who die while in that high spiritual zone come to the Soul Society when they die. The high spiritual zone has been over this part of Japan for many years now and you said Alex died back where you came from. He would have immediately gone to his next incarnation."

She looked down at her feet. "Oh."

"Tell me about it?" He asked gently.

"He was working a late shift at work. He didn't normally so he was pretty tired to begin with. I was on the phone with him to help keep him alert." She paused. Telling this man about Alex was hard. She had kept herself so busy after his death and then had to relive everything at the trial. A fire entered her eyes as she remembered how that bitch had practically walked away with a slap on the wrist. "She was drunk. His last words to me were, 'what the hell…'. And that's when I heard the sounds of metal crunching on metal. He was driving on a highway. She was driving in the opposite direction, crossed the median at over 70 miles an hour and slammed into him. Their combined speeds should have killed her too, but there's something about being drunk that seems to make you able to survive such a collision. Alex died instantly.

"She eventually went on trial for what she did. The ruling was that she would have to go through alcohol counselling, go through detox, and she would spend 3 years in a low security jail. It's an absolute farce. You hear that they are cracking down on drunk driving, but then you have judges that don't seem to care about it and let some slimy lawyer get their client out of it. It's disgusting." She dropped her face down to her hands.

He didn't know what to say, so he laid his hand on the back of her neck and ran his fingers through her hair a couple times before rubbing her back a few times. "It's still pretty raw, isn't it?" He asked.

"Not his death. But just knowing that she can go out and do that to someone else as soon as she gets out makes me so angry. It's one of the reasons I had to leave. That was her forth drunk driving charge. The first where she killed someone. If they had been as tough as we had all been lead to believe the drunk driving laws were, maybe this wouldn't have happened."

"Ah, but then I would have never met you."

"Ha! I may not be the best at reading people, but I can at least tell you wanted nothing to do with me when you first met me. So don't even try, Kenpachi."

"True." He lifted her face so she was looking at him in the face. "You've grown on me. Besides, once I agreed to train you, to get to know you, I can't help but feel glad that your circumstances eventually led you here. I would have rather not been here under my own circumstances, but to be fair, you probably wouldn't have piqued my interest in the same way."

"Your own circumstances?"

"You can't tell Ichigo. I'm under strict orders that he can't know. Can you promise me this? You do work with him, after all."

"I promise." She replied quietly.

"Then let's go inside. I can't risk him overhearing." He led her inside and they sat on the couch. Once they were seated and facing each other he explained. He finished with the admonishment, "You tell ichigo and I will kill you without hesitation."

"I already promised you, Kenpachi. What more can I say?"

"I just needed to remind you is all." He shifted his seat on the couch. "Are you ready for more training?" She nodded and they headed back out.

They began again. He eventually maneuvered behind her and grabbed her, pinning her arms at her sides. He was surprised when she didn't stiffen. Instead, she quickly hooked her left leg around his. She lifted her left knee which caused his leg to move briefly. As soon as it did, she pushed back with all her strength and as they fell backwards, she positioned her right elbow so that it would dig into his ribs when they landed. He grunted at the impact, surprised at her ingenuity and quick thinking. His arms were still around her so he quickly rolled over onto her, pinning her to the ground.

She was now on her belly with most of Kenpachi's weight on her. She couldn't help but stiffen, lost in the memories and fear of the recent rape. She began gasping and shuddering. The large man shifted above her, he stayed over her, but his arms moved from around her and he laid his forearms on either side of her shoulders and shifted his legs so he was straddling her legs while on his knees. His warm breath ghosted on her left ear as he spoke softly to her.

"Hey, remember. I'm not here to rape you, I'm here to train you. You've been doing good and I was expecting this when we were still standing." He waited a few moments and felt her relax underneath him. "Good, Sara. Now, think about what you should do. How do you get the upper hand?"

"I'm not sure."

"This is when you have the opportunity to think it through. You surprised me with that movement, which means you can surprise me again. Are you ready?"

"I think so." They had done this before. When he would pin her like this or other ways, or took her by surprise, they would pause and he would give her another opportunity to find a way to gain the upper hand.

He repositioned himself and rolled them so that she was again on top of him. He moved her right elbow to where she had struck him as they fell. "We've just the ground." He quickly made the same movement, rolling himself on top of her, arms still wrapped around her. She moved her head forward and then thrust back as hard as she could.

The crunching sound would have been satisfying to Kenpachi had he heard that noise as his fist connected to someone else's nose. The fact that it came from his own nose surprised him. They were both groaning as the large man rolled off Sara while holding his nose. She was groaning as she rubbed the back of her head.

"Why is your face so hard?" She groaned.

His voice was a little nasally as he responded, "You used the wrong part of your head for that. I can't believe you broke my nose." He sounded proud.

"Oh no! Should we call Tessai?"

He laughed, and then groaned. He really never wanted to feel that again. It was now when he wished he had his spiritual pressure. "No, Isshin can handle this. It's a pretty small healing. We needed Tessai for you because you were too close to death and the kidos that needed to be used, needed to be done by a master."

"Let's get you to him then."

"Get me a towel for my nose. I can't go in there with it splayed across my cheek and be seen coming back out with it back where it's supposed to be and not a bruise to be seen."

She nodded and did as he said. They went to the clinic and had to explain to Isshin what happened which had him laughing so hard that tears began to stream down his face. Kenpachi growled, but the sound was too off with the broken nose so he stopped and waited for the former captain to calm down. He had to set Kenpachi's nose first before he could use a healing kido on it. The crunching sounds made Sara grimace.

Ten minutes later they left the clinic and headed back to Kenpachi's house.

"You surprised me twice in one day. I think you've earned the rest of the day off. Do you drink?"

"Sometimes, but drinking tends to make me silly and sleepy."

"Let's go to a bar then. It's Friday anyway."

"Sure. It will be nice to get out." She went and grabbed a shower and then started on a letter to her dad. She missed him and getting together to talk was not always easy. They had tried to leave each other messages through voice mail, but it was such a pain and she always felt bad that she might be disturbing his sleep. It was stupid to think that way, she knew, but she couldn't help it.

She was careful to not reveal anything about hollows. He wouldn't understand anyway. She told him about work and her coworkers along with her new address and left out everything about the rape. He didn't need to know about that and it would just worry him. By extension, she left out everything about Kenpachi. She didn't know why, but felt that she shouldn't. Maybe because her dad was always curious…. 'Oh, and what does he do for a living? Oh, he kills hollows…. What are those?' she could hear the questions now and didn't want to even go there.

Kenpachi entered her room after a few hours. She was so quiet, he wanted to know what she was doing. Besides, there wasn't anything else to do. She was so absorbed that she didn't hear him come in or sit on her bed. It was odd to him to watch someone writing from left to right. The squiggles looked funny to him and made him wonder what they meant.

"What are you writing?" He finally asked.

"(Dear god, what are you? Part cat? I need to tie a bell on you!)" She replied while trying to nearly climb out of her chair and up in the air. It made him laugh.

"What did you say?" He asked between laughs.

"Do you get some perverse pleasure out of scaring me?"

"All of that, what you said in English, was just that? It sounded like at least 2 sentences."

Sara thought for a moment. "I said, 'Dear god, what are you? Part cat? I need to tie a bell on you.' Now answer the question, Kenpachi. Do you get pleasure out of scaring me?"

Kenpachi laughed even harder. "Actually, I usually do wear bells in my hair. And scaring you is fun. You have such good reactions. You get so focused on what you're doing that you don't pay attention to anything going on around you. That's dangerous and can get you killed if you're not careful."

She looked at the tall man dubiously. _Is he messing with me? What kind of guy wears bells in his hair?_ She thought to herself.

"You don't believe me, do you?"

"I guess I just can't picture it."

"If we can find the size bells I use, I'll show you one of these days."

"Promises, promises."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that I'll believe it when I see it." He rolled his eyes.

"You never said what you're writing." He pointed to the pieces of paper on the desk.

"I'm writing my dad a letter. I try to write him once a week. Calling him is not the easiest. You almost have to plan it out ahead of time."

"You didn't….."

She cut him off. "No. I left out everything to do with hollows and the Soul Society, even you. He would just end up asking too many questions. I left out the rape too. He doesn't need to worry about me even more at his age."

His eyes softened when she mentioned the rape. "If you need to talk about it with someone, I'm here. You know that, right?" She gave a bitter half smile and nodded. "I'm going to start dinner. After we eat, we'll head to the bar."

"Ok. I'll come help make dinner." She got up and followed him to the kitchen.

When they finished eating, they left to Ichigo's house. While they walked to the bar, they talked.

"Kenpachi said he usually wears bells in his hair. Tell me that's not true." Sara asked Ichigo.

The sudden question made him momentarily choke. Kenpachi just wore a small smirk knowing the answer. "Yeah. He usually wears his hair in spikes and there are bells attached to the ends."

Sara laughed at the image after looking at the large man and tried to imagine it. "No way. That had to look ridiculous."

"Actually, it was kind of intimidating, what with the eye patch."

"Eye patch?"

"He didn't tell you? Yeah, he has this eye patch that seals some of his spiritual pressure away."

"Which eye?" She asked Kenpachi.

"The right one."

"That's weird. I would expect you to say the left as it would match that scar and make more sense."

"I found that leaving the scar with nothing covering it was more fun." _That's interesting. She's never mentioned my facial scar before. She's never shied away from looking at it either. I wonder what she thinks about it._ He mentally shook himself. _Why do I care what she thinks about it? That first night she was looking at the scars on my chest. She never once asked about them. I wonder why. It would only be natural to ask me about them after the amount we've talked about ourselves. Maybe they just don't matter to her._ He mentally shrugged and pushed the thoughts away.

"So why bells?"

"I like to give my opponents a fighting chance. To that end, I handicap myself. I only use 1 hand on my sword which causes it to be unbalanced. I use an eye patch that seals spiritual pressure because you will find that raising your spiritual pressure will grant you more strength. By limiting how high I can raise it, I limit the amount of strength I can bring to a fight. Last, the bells. It's to let my opponent always know where I am. If they are smart, they'll use them to their advantage." He gave Sara a sideways smile. Maybe now she would have a better idea of the kind of person he was. But she still looked at him the same, almost like she found him amusing.

She looked to Ichigo for confirmation. "I don't know why you're looking at me. But it is true. I fought him once and I never want to do that again."

"Wuss." Kenpachi shot at him.

"You almost killed me!"

"You almost killed me too. And I don't see any huge scars on your body where I hit you."

"That's because Orihime eventually removed them. You know she could get rid of the ones I gave you."

"Huh?" Sara had a hard time following this back and forth between the two men.

Kenpachi chuckled. "His friend Orihime has an interesting ability. She can make it so injuries never happened. That's why Ichigo doesn't have the scars that I gave him during our fight. As for the pair he gave me, I think you've seen them. They go from here," He put his fingers on both collar bones. "And go to here." He traced them down to the end of his rib cage.

She looked at Ichigo differently, "You gave him those?"

He looked a little sheepish, "Yeah, well, it was either him or me that day. I'll tell you about it another day, or Kenpachi will. We're here." He had stopped in front of a small building. There were flashing lights of microphones and music notes.

Sara's face fell. She looked at Kenpachi. "You didn't… You did. Why? Are you planning on singing?"

"No. You are. It will be fun. I hear it's a great way to release stress. Maybe you would have slept easier if you sang karaoke on a regular basis."

"That's a low blow and you know it. I'm not singing."

The guys dragged her in. Ichigo had his hand stamped to show he was under age. It was still early enough that they hadn't kicked out anyone underage yet. They set her down at a booth and Kenpachi boxed her in so she couldn't leave except for crawling under the table. The red head only ordered water and Kenpachi ordered sake for him and Sara.

"I know what you're planning. Get me drunk enough and I'll just agree to anything."

"More or less." Zaraki grinned.

"It won't happen. You just wait until I find out something embarrassing about you, Kenpachi Zaraki."

"Who would you even tell?"

"Um…. Ichigo and his dad….. And that Kiske guy."

"I think I'll survive and if they bring it up too much, I'll just kill them. Problem solved." As answer she just poked him in the ribs.

Ichigo left to grab one of the karaoke binders along with a slip of paper and pencil. He opened the binder and started flipping through it. "I'll tell you what. If you agree to sing a song, I will too."

"Guys, this wouldn't just be embarrassing because I'm singing in front of strangers and you two. I still can't read Japanese very well and I've never sung in another language before. It will sound wrong. And if I try and translate the song on the fly like that it will be even worse. It takes me too long to translate."

"So sing it in English. You'll have the benefit of fewer people being able to understand what you're saying." Kenpachi suggested.

Soon the drinks came and Kenpachi encouraged her to drink several of the small cups of sake. They listened to several people sing very poorly versions of songs which made Sara want to grind her teeth. She never liked going to the bar on karaoke night.

True to his word, Ichigo chose a song for himself and handed it to the guy running the machine. His name was eventually called up and he sang his song. He did well enough, and she found herself cheering for him when he finished.

Kenpachi leaned over to Sara and said softly in her ear, "If you don't, when we get your zampakuto, we'll train with bare blades instead of practice swords and I might not pull my punches so much."

"You wouldn't."

"It's how I typically train with my men. I have been going a little easy on you because you're still learning." He smiled widely.

"You're pure evil, you know that?"

"Yes. Now pick a song."

"Why are you making me sing, Kenpachi? You know I don't like to sing in front of anyone."

"As a soul reaper, you will sometimes have to do things you don't want to do. This is something harmless to start you on being able to accept doing those things that you don't want to do."

Sara looked to Ichigo and he nodded. "It's true."

She sighed and poured herself some more of the sake and drank that first before asking Ichigo to look for a couple songs knowing that some might not be there. She eventually decided to go with Raise Your Glass by Pink. Singing along to the CD when she was driving to and from work had made it so every song on that CD was memorized. Ichigo wrote down the information and handed it to the guy running the machine. It wasn't long before Sara's name was called. Kenpachi got out of the booth to let her out.

"One minute," She called to the karaoke operator and headed up to the bar and ordered 2 double shots of whiskey. She was going to need something stronger then the sake for this. She paid for the drinks and took them with her as she went up to the microphone. She set the drinks on a stool that was up there and the operator started the song. She smiled and quickly drank one of the double shots.

The song began playing and she decided to get in to it, raising her empty glass whenever the song called out "Raise your glass" and soon everyone was doing it along with her. When the song ended, she drank down the second double shot, raised the glass in a salute and headed back to the booth with the empty glasses. By then, the drinks were beginning to take effect and she had a silly grin plastered on her face.

Kenpachi got out to let her in and she collapsed, red-faced into the booth and slid in. "That wasn't so bad, was it?" He asked her.

"I'm starting to get a little drunk. And thinking in Japanese is starting to get harder." She slurred.

"I think you let her drink too much, Kenpachi." Ichigo smirked.

"I'm not the one who ordered whatever she was drinking on stage. I didn't know she was such a light weight." He flagged down their server and asked for a water for the girl who was still red-faced from singing in front of so many people and leaning up against the wall the booth was up against.

"The alcohol helped. Please don't push me to do that ever again though, ok?" Her words were a little weak and still a little slurred.

"For now." Kenpachi agreed with a smile. He grabbed her around the waist and pulled her closer against himself companionably.

She squawked at the sudden movement which made the men chuckle and said, "No sudden movements like that. You're making me dizzy."

The water came and she took a few swallows before beginning to nod off.

"Did she just fall asleep?" Ichigo asked.

"She did warn me that drinking makes her a little silly and sleepy. I guess she wasn't kidding."

Kenpachi finished off the sake he had ordered and after paying, headed back home with Ichigo while carrying the drunk and unconscious girl. As they were walking a hollow appeared. Ichigo quickly left his body to fight it and Kenpachi sat down next to a tree. Sara stirred a little so he started talking to her to wake her up. She should see the fight. Her eyes opened groggily.

"(You're cute.)" She said and kissed him on the lips. Her lips were soft and warm and as much as Kenpachi enjoyed a good kiss as much as the next guy, didn't want her this way. Not while she was drunk.

He very firmly pulled her away from himself. "You're drunk Sara." Her eyes were already becoming heavily lidded and she fell back against him already asleep. _Will she remember this? I'll keep it to myself. I wonder what she said though._ He mused to himself. He continued to watch the fight. The kid definitely didn't savor the fight.


	6. Chapter 6

**Woot! Chapter 6! It's been done for a while, but I like to have a cushion as I will sometimes go back and change a few things. In what I haven't published yet, I'm pretty close to being finished, I think. I'll still have to go back and review it a couple times before it actually makes it here. Make sure it has a good flow and all. I may try a Fairy Tale fanfic after this is done. Not sure yet. I'm not a fan of modifying cannon too much and that story would modify it quite a bit. **

**If you would like to beta read for me, let me know. I know I make a lot of mistakes (especially with names!) so having a beta reader would be appreciated. I have another Bleach story on my laptop, but I've hit a wall. (shrug) Not sure if that one will make it here.**

**Please read and review!**

* * *

It was morning and Sara was in her own bed, dressed in the clothing from last night. On top of it, she had a hangover. _I never get a hangover. And did I kiss Kenpachi last night? Please tell me that was just a dream. I suppose it's time to face the music. But first I really need to brush my teeth. It feels like something crawled into my mouth and died._ She got up and got dressed and rigorously brushed her teeth. When she was done she staggered into the kitchen and instead of the breakfast drink, poured herself a large glass of water.

When Kenpachi walked into the kitchen, her face immediately reddened.

_She remembers_, he thought to himself.

"Kenpachi, if I did anything that embarrassed you or myself or both of us, I'm really sorry."

"Don't worry about it." He started to chop some herbs and steep them in hot water. When he was done, he cooled it with some ice and handed the concoction to Sara. "For the hang over."

She eyed it warily as it smelled pretty gross.

"Just drink it, Sara. It may smell nasty, but it will make you feel better." She reluctantly drank it down, gagging a little at the taste. When she finished, she made a 'that was gross' face and he chuckled at her. She drank some of the water to get the taste out of her mouth. It was about 10 minutes later when the hangover left her.

"That stuff's amazing! Where did you learn to make it?"

"From an old healer woman in the Zaraki district which is where I took my last name from." He took her glass of water, poured it out and poured the breakfast drink into it and handed it back. "Drink up. More training today. We'll start with the weights and after lunch do some more hand to hand." She groaned at him, but began drinking slowly. He made his own breakfast and ate it slowly, enjoying the comfortable silences that they shared so easily.

They headed to the weight room and traded off who was using the bench and who was using the free weights. She was amazed at how much he could lift, though he was disappointed. He knew he could lift more when he had his normal spiritual pressure. When they had both worked up pleasant sweats, Kenpachi called a halt and they had a light lunch before continuing on to hand to hand fighting.

The days continued in this manner and soon Sara could really see the difference in her body. Despite what he had said, they still caught each other eyes every now and then and one or the other would look away with a little bit of red staining their cheeks; that drunken kiss still on their minds. They had now been training for two and a half weeks when Kisuke called to tell them that the zampakuto had come in. He dropped it and a pair of practice swords off at the house while Sara was off at work.

When Sara came home that day, she was met with a widely grinning Kenpachi. She gave him an odd look that silently asked him what was up with the grin.

"We can start sword training now. Your zampakuto is here." He used a glove that allowed him to push her spirit from her body.

"Warn a girl!" She was a little surprised at the sudden loss of her body.

"Here's your zampakuto." He held it out to her. Unlike a normal two handed grip, it had a one and a half handed grip which seemed odd to her. She pulled the blade from the sheath and the blade gleamed. It was heavier then she expected. The hilt was wrapped in white and a dark purple that was almost black.

Kenpachi pulled the sheath away from the rest of the blade. "Take a stance."

"Like this?" She stood holding the sword more like a baseball bat. Her left hand was up by the guard and her right was more loosely gripped at the bottom.

"Not quite." He corrected her position and then noticed that she was holding the sword left handed. "Aren't you right handed?"

"Yeah."

"So why are you holding your sword like that?"

"Oh, well, I write and eat right handed, but I hold a baseball bat and hockey stick left handed. It never felt comfortable the other way."

"Ok, well, sheath the blade and put it in your belt. Your zampakuto needs to stay with your spirit body. This way it will always be with you when you have to leave your body." She did what he asked and when she was finished, he directed her to enter her body again. She could almost feel the blade at her hip. It felt comforting to her. She kept on touching her hip and stroking where she could still feel the sword. Seeing her do this made the large man smile.

"Feels good, doesn't it?" He asked her.

"Definitely different. I keep feeling it and then I look down or touch my hip and there's nothing there. It kinda feels like…..I don't know. It makes me feel more confident. I don't even know how to use the damn thing and it makes me feel more confident."

He chuckled at her. "I know the feeling. When I came here, they kept my zampakuto and it was like a part of me was missing. You get used to it; both ways. You've definitely helped that to be more bearable though. You give me something to concentrate on." She blushed at his comments.

She picked up one of the practice swords. "So how the hell do you use one of these things? You know, besides stick the pointy end into your opponent." She demonstrated by poking him in the stomach with the pointy end.

He grabbed the blade and pulled it from her grasp. "Go get changed. I've never taught anyone from scratch, so this will be interesting."

When she came back out, she followed him outside. He handed her a wooden blade and had her take her stance again. He corrected her again and now that he could actually touch her this time, was able to be more exact.

"I think, like with the hand to hand training, we'll take a trial by error approach. Do what feels natural. I'll start slow and easy and we'll step it up as you improve, just like last time."

She nodded and did what she could with blocking, dodging, and counter attacking. Every now and then he would knock her sword away and she would have to find a way to get to it without getting smacked with the blade. The large man really seemed to come alive even with just a practice blade in his hand. Even Sara could tell the difference. Hand to hand training was now only done during the weekends with blade and weight training alternating during the week.

As the training became more and more intense and Kenpachi increasing the amount of power behind his attacks, he taught her how to raise and lower her spiritual pressure. She wasn't going to have enough to wrap it around herself like he did. In fact, in most squads, her spiritual pressure would leave her at a non-seated member status or if she became really skilled, she could become a 20th seat, but he also recognized that it hadn't stopped growing yet.

He always admonished her to hit him harder. She pointed out that she was already leaving bruises on him when she made contact. "Don't worry about it." He would tell her. She did anyway. His bruises didn't ever take long to fade, but it still made her feel bad that she was bruising him.

It was a couple weeks later when they were sitting at the kitchen island having breakfast.

"I think it's time you learned soul burial. We need to go grocery shopping anyway and I've been seeing some souls out that way that Ichigo has been ignoring." He put the soul glove on and gestured to her come towards him. She did so and for the first time, was actually prepared for when her soul left her body.

"What's soul burial? And why do I have to be in soul form?"

"It's easier to show you. And you need your zampakuto for this. It's Saturday, so we can spend more time with this if we have a hard time finding souls."

"But if we're going grocery shopping, how am I going to be able to help bring things home?"

"We won't get as much this trip. Just a few odds and ends."

"Ichigo has been acting a little weird lately. His spiritual pressure has been really weird lately too."

"Weird how?"

"He hasn't been walking home with me the last couple days and his spiritual pressure keeps on fluctuating."

"I noticed he hasn't been walking you all the way home, but I just assumed he was getting you within sight and heading off after. I haven't been around him enough to notice the spiritual pressure. I'll talk to him later."

"Please don't. I'm a lot more capable now. I'll never be taken like that again."

"And if a hollow were to attack you? You don't have a way to leave your body. I'll see if I can get you a soul candy or something."

Sara decided to not ask him about that just yet. She had a feeling it would confuse her right now and she wanted to focus on this new lesson.

As they left the house, he explained how to do the soul burial. She was surprised to learn how easy it was. It was early and they were lucky that not many people were out, so there were few stares at the large man clearly talking to someone that wasn't there.

As they neared the grocery store, there were more souls. Under Kenpachi's guidance, Sara encouraged souls to move over to a less crowded area and they would explain that the soul needed to go on to the Soul Society. When all of the souls in the area were given the soul burial, they went into the grocery store and Kenpachi grabbed a few essentials.

It was on their way back home that they encountered an angry hollow.

"You took away my food source, soul reaper! Now I'm going to dine on you!"

Sara was clearly scared. "You can do this, Sara. He's fairly weak and you've been training. Remember, aim for the mask above all else. You must cut through it to beat him." He mumbled into her ear, trying to offer what comfort he could. He itched to fight this thing himself but knew that if he did, he might find himself back in Soul Society and not in a good way. He backed away to give them room to fight.

She drew her blade and took her stance. She waited for the hollow to move first. It's speed was amazing to her and she almost regretted allowing it the first move. Try as she might, it was hard thinking of killing anything. She had to keep reminding herself that she was purifying the soul by cleaving through the mask.

Kenpachi watched the fight from a safe distance, being little more than a human in this state. She was doing well. Her fighting instinct was definitely improving. She ducked a claw swipe at her head that there is no way she could have known was coming. She struggled during the fight and took a hit to her right shoulder when she had unintentionally left it exposed. She eventually killed it and walked back to the large man.

"You dropped your guard." She nodded and they walked back to the house in silence.

When she reentered her body, the wound on her spirit shoulder formed on her flesh body. After putting the groceries away he brought over a first aid kit Isshin had given them when she had received her sword. He cleaned the wound and dressed it for her. His fingers were surprising gentle.

"Your first wound. Not bad. If it scars, you'll have a good story to tell."

She looked up at the large man. "But who would I be able to tell the truth?"

"Fair enough. You fought well today. I was glad you had the opportunity to test yourself against a real foe. How did it feel?"

"Scary." She admitted. "It was like everything I'd learned was gone from my mind."

"A battle can be like that. You have to sometimes let instinct take over. I saw you do that a couple times. The more you practice with the sword, the less scary those fights will get. I miss that scared feeling in a fight. It's about all I live for in a fight, now a days. That feeling of will I survive this one? I wouldn't mind being you right now, just starting out and learning how to use the sword just so I could feel that again."

They were still sitting on the floor when their eyes locked again and Kenpachi leaned in for a kiss. This was the Sara he would want. Sober, coming down from a battle high, and still bloody from her first fight. She accepted the kiss and kissed him back. She put a hand up to his face and he pressed a hand to her back, pulling her in closer. He eventually lifted her on to his lap and she didn't even seem to notice. Her mouth had an urgency to it and he complied.

He released her mouth and attacked her neck, kissing, nibbling and sucking as his hands slid up her shirt, running his hands along her back.

"No." She gasped out. "No." She pulled his face from her neck and looked at him. He looked back at her questioningly. "The kissing feels good and so do your hands, but I just don't feel quite right yet." She looked at him pleadingly. He needed to know that she wasn't rejecting him. She was just still….broken.

"What's wrong?" He stopped the movement of his hands and just kept them wrapped loosely around the small of her back. She looked away and down, letting her hair hide her face. He tucked some of it behind her ear. "Tell me about it?"

She leaned her face into the hollow of his neck and he could feel some wetness on his skin. He hugged her tighter to himself and waited her out.

She took a few deep breaths and finally said, "I guess I just feel dirty, like I'm not going to be good enough for anyone ever again."

His face became stony, his eyes blazed in anger, and his arms tightened around her, no longer loose, but nearly bone crushing. He had no idea that she felt that way. She had hidden it so well from him. She accepted the tight hug and he felt her hands wrap around his back. She wasn't hugging nearly as tightly, but she was hugging him back as she allowed the tears to roll down her face and onto his neck. He eventually closed his eyes and leaned his head into hers and loosened his death grip. He felt her take a deep breath that she probably had not been able to take before.

"I really wish you'd let me kill them." He finally said which made her laugh. "Laughter is good. I like to hear you laugh. The crying, not so much. I don't like not being able to fight something." He kissed her temple. "You're not dirty, you know. Right?" She nodded. "And you honestly think I'm good for anyone? You know a little bit about me; who I am, what I've done. And I'm not ashamed of any of it. Because of that, no woman has ever tried to get to know me. All they want to know is if I can fuck as good as I fight."

She pulled back and looked at him full in the face. "You've changed a lot about me, Sara. Before I met you, I wouldn't have enjoyed watching someone kill their first hollow. I would have just pushed them out of the way and even attacked them if they got in my way during the fight. I've done it before. And I was happy to do it. Get them mad enough at me and then I could fight on two fronts. I can't promise I won't push you out of the way in a fight should I ever get my spiritual pressure and zampakuto back, but I do love to fight. Can you accept that about me?" She nodded. "Then you're more than good enough for me."

"How did I change that about you?"

"By being you. The way you sing when you don't think anyone is listening. The way you looked up at me when you were having the problems with sleep paralysis. That you didn't even want to kill a hollow."

"I've never killed anything larger than a bug before."

He chuckled at that and she swatted him. "That may not seem like such a large thing to change about me, but I'm slow to change. I used to look down on humans because they're all weak. Except Ichigo that is. But the way you took everything I gave you during training. You showed me that there are different kinds of strength. I don't hold a lot of respect for many people, but I respect you." He kissed the hollow behind her jaw and under her ear and she closed her eyes with pleasure at the intimate kiss.

He eventually lifted her up and carried her to a large comfortable chair and had her sit across his lap with her head nestled in the hollow of his neck. _This feeling is definitely a close second to fear in battle._ He thought to himself. _Might just be better, considering this closeness might happen more often than a decent battle._ He leaned back in the chair with a smile on his face.

That evening, he kissed her good night and they both went to their own rooms. Sara laid awake for a long time. She just couldn't get comfortable and her brain kept on replaying the events of the day. He had needed to know that she was broken, but he had just tossed it away and told her it didn't matter to him. It was after midnight when she finally slid out of bed and padded into his room. He was snoring softly. She tried to not jostle the bed as she crawled in next to him, but he was a fighter. He was always aware of his surroundings even in sleep. He opened his eyes, wrapped an arm around her waist and let her snuggle in close. She was now finally able to go to sleep.


	7. Chapter 7

**Ok. here it is - last chapter... maybe. The story can naturally end where I have it, or I can go further. The only problem is that I need more plot to go further. want to see this story continue? send me plot ideas. I had started to write more but I realized that I couldn't make the story go anywhere else. You'll see at the end. I will have a few notes at the end of the story to clarify a few things. **

**As always - reviews are always appreciated. PM's are too!**

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She began to stir and he waited for her to fully wake. She took a deep breath and turned around so that she was facing the large man. She smiled at him and then buried her face into his chest. He wrapped his arm back around her, rubbing her back.

"Good morning." He mumbled into her hair.

"Mmmm 'morning, Kenpachi." Came her muffled reply.

"I'm glad you came to me last night. I wanted to come to you, but I didn't know how you would react and your bed is small." His hand trailed to her lower back and she jumped in his arms, pushing in to him and away from his hand. "What was that?"

"Ticklish." She replied while holding back a giggle.

"Really?" He grinned evilly. She looked up at him, but couldn't see the evil glint in his eyes. He lightly brushed his fingers up and down the small of her back, keeping her from rolling on to her back and preventing the tickling. Her giggles filled the room as she kept bucking into him to get away from his fingers. She even started to use her legs as she tried desperately to get away from the evil fingers. He stopped as he started to hear her gasping for breath and was even nice enough to release her. She rolled onto her back and scooted a little away completely red faced from the recent exertion.

"You really are pure evil, you know that?" She gave him a fake glare as she continued to try and catch her breath. She had a hand to her chest which Kenpachi found odd.

"Why do you do that?" He pointed to her hand over her chest. She seemed to only do that when he scared her but she was doing it now too.

She sat up and leaned forward while pulling the neck of her shirt down to show a scar between her breasts that ran along her sternum. "I was 14 and all I did was sneeze. My heart started racing and it wouldn't slow down. My parents took me to the emergency room where they decided that my heart needed to be restarted. They gave me an injection that caused my heart to stop and then they had to make it beat again. It worked and I was very sore afterwards. They released me that night. I hadn't been home for a few minutes when I had only gone up the stairs to my bedroom when it started again. We had to go right back to the hospital. They did the same thing but they kept me overnight for observation. It happened again that night. I can't remember if I had sneezed again or if I had just shifted in the bed. They had to restart my heart a third time in less than 12 hours. They decided to send me in to surgery the next morning. It was an open heart surgery to find out what was wrong.

"There is a part of the heart and I only know the English word for it. It's called the (SA node). It controls the heart rate with electrical pulses. Mine was misfiring. They went in, they repaired it and I had to wear a (pace maker) for about a week to monitor my heart to ensure it didn't start happening again. They ended up keeping me in the hospital for a couple extra days than normal because I had apparently developed some infection.

"I guess I always worry that it will happen again, so I pay attention when it suddenly beats fast to make sure it does calm back down."

He ran his fingertips along the scar. It was thin and faded. It was probably why she didn't wear any low cut shirts. "That had to be scary, being so young when it happened."

"Yeah. I guess it doesn't happen very often which is why they didn't realize what the problem was at first. If they had, they would have never sent me home after the first time."

"Do you have any more scars?"

She laughed. "A few." She lifted her shirt to expose her stomach and lowered her pants a little to show 2 more scars. She pointed to the lower one. "Had my appendix removed when I was 23. My dad thought that I had a hangover but when I described what I was feeling, he quickly got me to the hospital. I hear bad appendixes run in my family. My dad and grandmother both had their's go on them. Yet my brothers have both been spared that family problem." She shook her head and pointed at another scar. "I was 27 when my spleen went. They had to remove it and now I can't give blood. I have nothing that cleans out the toxins from my blood so my blood is considered 'dirty'. It means that it takes me longer to heal from infections, but surprisingly enough, you don't actually need it to live."

"No other scars?" He asked after running his finger over both of the scars.

"The rest are just stupid childhood scars. Nothing that's actually interesting."

"What about this little one under your chin?" He touched it lightly.

She laughed. "That's a really stupid childhood scar."

He smiled. "Tell me."

"We had this rail that separated the dining room from the family room and I liked to sit on it as a kid. My mom would always tell me that I was going to fall and hurt myself and I always brushed her off. She was right, you know. One day I did slip and I fell right into the dog's food bowl and split my chin. My parents took me to the hospital and they gave me stitches. I think I was five or six? I really can't remember. I was told that it took my mom and a nurse to hold me down while the doctor had to practically put me in a head lock to hold my head in place while he gave me a couple stiches."

By the end of the story, Kenpachi was smiling and holding back chuckles. _So she always had a bit of fight in her._ He mused to himself. He leaned over and kissed her, his hand laying on her still exposed stomach. He kept it light, not wanting her to feel too trapped. She had a hand up in his hair as she kissed him back. He pulled her body towards his and started to kiss her neck. She had seemed to like that yesterday. She breathed deeply beneath him, her hands on his shoulders.

He paused and asked, "How are you doing with this?"

"Nervous." He could hear it in her voice too.

He moved back up so he was looking her in the eye. "Why are you nervous?"

"I don't want to freeze up."

"I don't want you to freeze up either. Do you think it would help if you were on top? That way you can be in control. It's not something I tend to offer. I do like being in control, you know."

"I'm willing to try." He removed his pants and she removed her sleeping clothing which was only a loose shirt and a pair of sweats.

"Are you ok with me touching your breasts?" He didn't want to start off with her freezing up, considering what had been done to her torso. She nodded and he kissed her lips and slowly worked his way down to her breasts. He sucked and nibbled them and even kissed the scar between them. As he did, he trailed a hand down between her legs. He stroked her lightly at first and as she responded positively, he slowly parted her lips and inserted a pair of fingers into her. He could tell that he wasn't going to need anything to help him enter her. She would be tight, but there was enough of her own natural lubrication that he wouldn't need to worry.

He stroked her a few times, rubbing his fingers along the ridges of her g-spot. He was back to kissing her mouth and she was moaning into his mouth. He rolled them so he was on his back with her on top of him and he positioned himself at her entrance.

"You need to do the rest, Sara. You're in control now. Show me what you want me to do."

She leaned up and pushed into him. She lifted and pushed down a couple times until he was all the way inside of her. They paused for a little bit, each enjoying the feeling. She put his hands on her hips and her own on his shoulders. She pulled herself forward, causing his penis to begin to slip from her and as she did, her inner muscles tightened. She pushed herself back, relaxing those muscles, causing him to reenter her. She wasn't able to go very fast in this position and she found that she wasn't getting that building sensation she usually got during sex. She leaned forward and kissed him, trying to do anything that would help that sensation. He moved his hands so his arms were wrapped around her and he balanced himself so he could thrust into her.

"The sensations aren't building, Kenpachi. I don't know what's wrong with me."

"I think you may be overthinking it. Let me help you." He removed himself from her and had her lay back down next to him. "I want you to just concentrate on the sensations. Let me know if you don't like anything." He went back to doing what he had been earlier. Kissing and stroking. He found her g-spot again and began rubbing it while using his thumb to also rub her clit. Her moans were beginning to get louder with an almost pleading note to them.

Finally she got out between gasps and moans, "I… I n-n-n - Oh! I need you… Ah!... in me! Please!" She was pulling him on top of her so he positioned himself, removed his hand and plunged in. It was only after a few hard strokes that she pressed her lips to his neck to stop from screaming out as she came. It was stronger then she'd had in a long time and she couldn't stop herself from bucking into him and gripping his back. The strength of it had her practically pushing him out of her and he enjoyed the little battle of pushing himself back in as she pushed him back out using only those inner muscles. She was still shuddering from the orgasm when he found his own release.

He leaned on his forearms, looking her in the eyes. He kissed her briefly and when he released her lips asked her again, "How are you doing with this?"

She gave a small laugh. "I'm not so nervous anymore. I can't even remember the last time I came like that. They aren't usually that powerful."

He kissed her nose. "I liked it. I hope I can always make you cum like that." Her inner muscles finally pushed him all the way out and he wasn't able to push back in.

Her eyes grew heavy and he rolled off of her. He kissed her temple and pulled her close to him, letting her rest. She toyed with his hair. It had grown since she had first met him.

"I don't think I'll be able to get it up in the spikes with the bells. The middle spike was always difficult to get the bell attached. Now that it's grown, it's going to be completely out of my reach."

"I can help."

He made a face. "That would just be weird."

"What's so weird about it?"

"I just don't like the thought of someone else doing my hair for me."

"You could get it cut."

"Again, that would be someone else doing my hair for me." She rolled her eyes at him so he tickled her.

She bucked in to him in surprise, trying to get away from his fingers. He laughed and stopped. He had only wanted to make her squirm a little bit.

"Are you ticklish?"

"I don't know. No one has ever tried." An evil glint entered Sara's eyes. She sat up and lightly brushed her fingers everywhere she could think of that would hide a ticklish spot, which meant that her fingers eventually touched every inch of him. He had even rolled over so she could try his back. All she got out of him was, "I like the feel of your fingers on me."

"That is so not fair. How can you not even have one ticklish spot on you?"

He shrugged and pulled her back down next to him. An evil glint entered his eyes. "Do you have more ticklish spots?" She tried pulling away but he had tightened his grip on her.

"I'm not telling you! Gah! Let me go! Let me go!"

He grinned and did as she had done. He found that there were two other places she was ticklish; her butt and her feet. The feet had ended up getting him a kick to the face.

"Ok, I won't tickle your feet anymore." He held a hand to his jaw. "Nice kick by the way."

"I want to feel bad, but somehow I don't."

He was now at the foot of the bed with her on her back in front of him. He grinned and pulled her feet apart and crawled up her body. When he was all the way up, he grinned at her and said, "Now you'll have to kiss it and make it feel better."

She reached up and kissed where she had kicked him. He moved his head and kissed her deeply. Her hands were now on his chest and waist, pulling him into her. She pressed her hips into his, making him groan into her mouth. She reached down and stroked his length and pressed him to her entrance. She gave a shuddering breath as he entered her. As he took up a pleasing pace she moved her mouth to his jaw and neck, sucking and nibbling.

The recent orgasm had sensitized her so it wasn't long before she whispered to him, "a little faster and harder. I'm almost there." He obliged and it wasn't long before her moans intensified and she came. He rode her orgasm and was soon able to find his own release.

He was nuzzling her neck as they both caught their breath. "Time to eat and then train for the day."

"I think I need a shower first."

"Me too. Wanna shower together?"

"I have a feeling I won't get much of a chance to get clean with you in the shower with me."

He chuckled and released her so they could both shower separately.

As Sara showered she played back her morning in her head. _I really wasn't expecting that this morning. His body is amazing! And the way he uses his mouth and fingers! But, what happens when he goes back to the Soul Society and I'm still stuck here? I suppose I can just be happy I have him for now, but I can't help thinking of the future too._ When Sara came back out to the kitchen fully dressed, she had a sad look on her face.

Kenpachi saw and immediately grabbed her by the chin and had her look up at him. "What's happened?"

She smiled weakly at him. "Just thinking that when you finally go back to the Soul Society, I'll still be here. You mentioned that captains don't get to come to the world of the living very often."

"I do get holiday leave, you know. And I'm sure I can find a way to get sent out to the world of the living more often." He leaned in and kissed her. "Don't worry about it. Who knows, maybe you can get permission to come visit me too. We'll find a way." He wrapped her in a hug, kissed her temple and then led her over to the kitchen island. He handed her a glass of the morning drink and told her to "Drink up."

The sword training was almost light and playful. She hadn't ever seen this side of him during training and it was refreshing.

They broke for lunch and then continued with hand to hand fighting. He was impressed with her improvement over the last month. She didn't quite have the speed, but she was getting there. It was at dinner when Sara told him about Ichigo.

"I think Ichigo has lost his spiritual pressure. He's never been able to conceal it well and now I don't see that glow around him anymore. How can that even happen?"

"He made a sacrifice that few make. He traded a final incredible attack against one of the traitors I told you about for a lifetime without spiritual pressure. It's been slowly leaving him since the Winter War and it sounds like it's finally gone now." He had a faraway look to his eyes and then he refocused on Sara. "It will be up to you now to keep the hollows in check and I really don't feel you're ready for that job full time yet. Let's go over and see Kisuke. We'll get you a soul candy and a soul pager so we can track hollows."

They finished up and Sara used her GPS on her cell phone to find Kisuke's shop. After explaining the situation, the blonde haired main handed over the requested items. "Ichigo has been keeping the place pretty clear of hollows, Zaraki, so I don't think your charge will have too hard of a time with it."

He nodded his thanks and they headed back home without incident. At home, Kenpachi showed her how the soul candy worked. She found the personality of the mod soul to be disturbing and hoped it never met any of her coworkers while wearing her skin. Sara realized that the soul pager worked a little like a GPS, so keeping that in mind, had an idea of how it would work.

"I'll hold on to the soul pager. If it goes off while you're at work, I'll call Kisuke and see if he can handle it, but if it goes off at night, you will have to handle it. It's part of being a soul reaper." Sara nodded and they headed to bed together.

It was a couple nights later when they received Sara's first soul pager alert. They had already fallen asleep for the night and the alert woke Kenpachi. He shook the woman lying beside him awake and used the soul glove to push her out of her body. There was no point in using the soul candy as she wasn't in public. Sara had the soul pager in hand and led them to the hollow.

It was a lower level hollow but it kept getting out of her reach. She had seen Ichigo able to climb up into the air without anything supporting him and just tried it. She really wasn't concentrating on what she was doing and just did it. She also figured out flash step during the fight. Kenpachi had never shown her how and she'd never seen him use it. Ichigo had been useless in explaining it. He just told her it was need that allowed him to do it. So that's what she used; need. And is seemed to work out.

When the fight was over she was able to gently touch down to the ground. "That was weird."

"Where did you learn flash step?"

"I asked Ichigo about it a few weeks ago and he said it was just need that allowed him to do it. I was actually surprised when it worked."

Kenpachi shook his head. "Humans."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It's not just need. I've never been able to use it. I've tried, but don't tell anyone." He smirked. "I've just relied on my own strength."

They walked back to the house and after Sara was back in her body, went back to sleep.

This continued over the next several weeks with hollow alerts coming in during the evening and night. Often interrupting them when they were trying to be intimate. Most tended to be low level hollows with a few that gave Sara challenge. It eventually got to the point that they weren't able to train anymore due to post battle fatigue or injuries. Any injury that was more than a cut like the one she had received on her shoulder were fixed up by Ichigo's dad.

It was now the middle of April. Kenpachi began to wonder if the head captain had forgotten about him. He worried about his division. What condition would it be in when he got back?

It was a Friday night and they had again been woken up by the soul pager. When they arrived at the location, Kenpachi could tell that this would be a tough fight for Sara. It was far stronger than any hollows she had fought so far. Not to mention that she hadn't been getting enough sleep. At least Ichigo had his friends to help him. Sara had been improving with all of the battle experience and her spiritual pressure had even increased, but this hollow's strength worried Kenpachi. Maybe he could distract it?

The battle had begun. Sara swiped at the hollow, trying to get it into a better position for a good killing blow, but it seemed to know what she was doing and was able to counter her in ways that made it so Sara was at an almost constant disadvantage. She rolled and parried, spun and counter attacked to no avail. All the while, the hollow was cutting her; a little here and a little there. Kenpachi eventually tried to distract it, but he was soundly ignored. As he was, he wasn't even of interest to the hollow.

He saw what was going to happen before it did. He saw the hollow's tail, poised like a scorpion's. He tried to warn Sara, but she was concentrating on the claws swiping at her. The tail suddenly struck, piercing her through her chest and lung, just missing her heart. Her zampakuto slipped from numbed fingers and clattered to the ground.

"Nooo!" Kenpachi called out, running to the fallen woman. He watched as black robes turned to white, taking the injury with them and leaving a severed soul chain. He looked up at the hollow and used the soul glove on himself, not caring about the consequences. He lifted Sara's zampakuto in his hand and charged at the hollow.

Over his shoulder, a kido spell was shot at the hollow, killing it instantly. He looked behind him to see Byakua. He no longer cared as his eyes slipped down to his Sara, still lying on the ground. He knelt down and lifted the spirit into his arms, zampakuto forgotten as it fell from his fingers.

"What happened?" She asked as her eyelids fluttered open.

"You died, Sara."

"Someone needs to let my dad know."

"I will. You need to go to the Soul Society. When you get there, ask for the 13 court guard. Head towards district one and ask for me at the gates. Do you understand?" He spoke quickly as the captain of the 6th squad was walking toward them. She nodded. He kissed her one last time and grabbed her zampakuto. He gently pressed the pommel to her forehead and watched as she turned into a hell butterfly and flew away.

"You are out of your gigai, Zaraki. You were expressly forbidden to do so." Kenpachi remained silent knowing that there was nothing he could say and he wasn't in the mood to deal with the annoying noble.

"Where is the girl's body, Zaraki?"

"At my house."

"Get back in your gigai. We can't leave it here."

Kenpachi agreed, but hated taking orders from the stuck up noble. He reluctantly pulled it back on.

"Give me the zampakuto."

"It's Sara's."

"I'm aware. If she shows up to the 13 court guard, it will be her's again. Hand it over." He reluctantly did so and they headed back to the house he had been using. When they arrived, Byakua directed the large man to lay beside the girl and to leave the gigai there. He then walked to the house next door and found Isshin, whom he had to wake up.

"What is it?" Isshin responded sleepily.

"The human girl is dead. Please see to her human death needs."

"How did she die?" He asked Zaraki.

"A hollow killed her. Her spirit has already been sent to the Soul Society."

"So her body is unmarked still?"

"Yes. There are also letters from her father in her room and I'm sure her cell phone had his number there. You'll have to find someone who can speak English to let him know."

"No problem. I'll make it look like an accidental death. And make sure he's contacted."

"Good." Byakua replied. He turned and left with Kenpachi following after.

When they had left the house, the captain of the sixth squad opened the gateway that would take them back home. "Do I need to restrain you, or will you come quietly?"

"Why fight? We're going where I want to be anyway."

"Because of that human girl?" The tone was dismissive and made the large man growl, but he chose to say nothing.

It was day three since he had been brought back. The seals on his spiritual pressure had remained and he had been kept in the division 2 holding cells. He had been denied any visitors or even knowledge on whether or not Sara had arrived. It was morning and he was getting restless. Breakfast had been served and the tray had already been removed. It wasn't lunch time yet, so the sounds of people walking down the hall towards him surprised him.

Captain Soi Fon and two of her subordinates arrived at his cell. "The head captain has convened a meeting about your behavior in the world of the living. Will you come quietly or do I need to restrain you?"

"Just lead the way."

Soi Fon led the way and her subordinates bookended the large man. They soon arrived at the Captain's meeting. Kenpachi was directed to stand in front of the head captain. They went over nearly every action the man had made while in the world of the living. Despite the fact that he had behaved himself, it seemed like they wanted to point out every mistake he made in their eyes.

They went over his reasons for revealing the existence of soul reapers, why he didn't agree to train the girl in the first place, how he had sought out a fight with humans regardless of the reason or outcome as the point had been that he not fight at all, about his teaching methods, that he told her about why he was there which skirted the order to not tell Ichigo and did not follow the spirit of the order, how he went out on the hollow hunts with the girl, his romantic relationship with the girl, and the final hollow where he disobeyed a direct order to not leave his gigai.

He answered any questions they had and defended his actions in a calm manner which they had not expected of the often volatile man. He learned that they had him under constant surveillance while in the world of the living and learning all they knew about his relationship with Sara and all they had shared about themselves was a little embarrassing. He hoped Sara never learned of it.

They were about an hour in when a hell butterfly arrived with a message. It alighted on the head captain's outstretched hand, delivered it's message, and left.

"Captain Fon, there is someone at the West Gate. Bring her here."

Soi Fon bowed to the head captain and left. While she was gone, they waited in silence.

The captain arrived several minutes later with a disheveled female human spirit in tow. As the door opened, everyone turned to look at the newcomer and she was recognized immediately. Kenpachi gave Sara a once over and realized how tired she looked. There were dark circles under her eyes and her clothing was dirty and even torn in a few places. Had she rested at all since arriving?

Sara's eyes immediately went to the large man. He gave her, not really a smile, but a lightening in his features. He looked tired, sad and worried to her. Some of the worry had seemed to leave his face when they saw each other which made her feel better.

Sara was directed to a spot just inside the door and to the right. "Kneel here and speak only if spoken to." She was admonished. Sara nodded and did as she was told. She colored slightly at all of the attention being paid to her by everyone in the room and was relieved when the old man at the other end of the room began speaking.

"Kenpachi Zaraki, we have listened to your explanations and while I do not feel you followed the spirit of the rules I gave you for your stay in the world of the living, you did follow the letter until the end where I do feel you really did come to understand what it is to be weak. I am reinstating you as the captain of the 11th division. After this meeting, the seals on your spiritual pressure will be removed and your zampakuto will be returned to you. Return to your place." Zaraki nodded to the head captain and returned to his place in line.

"Sara Peterson." The sound of her name made her jump and she heard someone chuckle. She suspected it was Kenpachi. "Stand." She did as she was told. "Your passing was not planned and I have heard from Kisuke that your father was notified of your passing. Isshin made it look like something called an aneurism." A few tears fell from her eyes and the head captain continued, "You have a choice to make. You can choose to become a soul reaper and go through the academy, or you can stay a private citizen. I see that you are tired and probably hungry and this decision doesn't need to be made right now. While you are within the walls of the 13 court guard, you are under Captain Zaraki's charge. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Head Captain."

"Good. As you look dead on your feet, you may go back to kneeling." She nodded and did so. The head captain turned his attention to the men and women in front of him. "The rest of you are dismissed."

As the other captains filed out of the room, many waved companionably to Sara. She didn't know how to react so stayed with her head lowered, her hands in her lap. Soon it was just her, the head captain and Kenpachi in the room. The head captain removed the seals on the large man's spiritual pressure and as it surged around him, they heard the sound of a body falling to the floor.

The older man chuckled and said, "You should probably reign that in. Here is a new eye patch that research and development made for you." He put the eye patch on and it felt odd against his eye. He had become used to having nothing against it. He resisted the urge to take it off. He reigned in the rest of his spiritual pressure and took his zampakuto that Yamamoto was handing to him.

"Where is Sara's zampakuto?" It was handed to him as well and he placed both in his belt. Sara was just beginning to stir and the captain of the 11th nodded to the old man and gathered Sara into his arms and left.

The End.

* * *

**Ok - time to clarify a few things - first the heart condition - actually happened to a friend of mine. can't remember how her's started. Might have been a sneeze. but that's what they did to her. I guess it really isn't a common thing, so had no clue that they were putting her in danger by sending her home. she was in her 30's when it happened to her.**

**yes, you can live without a spleen. found that out from someone I used to work with and she does have "dirty" blood as a result. the crazy medical conditions you can learn from people!**

**again - this story naturally concludes here. If you want more story, I'm going to need plot ideas. bear in mind, I have only read the manga up to book 28 and I have watched all the anime which stops after ichigo gets suckered by the full bringers. so while I'm mildly aware of things that go on after that in the manga, I have not read it so I don't have full knowledge.**

**also - dates. I haven't seen much in the manga or anime in the way of dates, so if my mid april is too late in the year for the full bringers - I do apologize. a little too late to go back and start changing dates now.**


	8. Author's Note

**Hi guys. While I've gotten reviews to continue this story, I really haven't gotten anything in the way of ideas. Having Sara go through the soul reaper academy is all well and good and it will take up a few chapters if I draw it out enough, but then what? I have no villain, I have no other story plot to go from there with. I have a few ideas that would make for interesting or even funny scenes, but there's just not enough there to go any further at this time.**

**Again, if you have an idea for an antagonist, send me a PM. I would be more then happy to have help fleshing out an appropriate villain. **

**I am working on another story starring Kenpachi (I can't help it - he's my favorite Bleach character) and when I have enough to post, I'll put up the first chapter. The working title of it is "The Traveler" but may change. If you want to beta read for me, let me know. I have no idea how to set that up so I'll need direction.**

**Thank you for all the support you've shown me. **

**-kem81**


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